Ending なくなる being positive?


I basically have two questions:

When we use なくなる we basically force the verb to be in negative so that we can
replace い by く and then add なる. For example: 見えなくなる (to become not visible).
My question is, what if I want to use it in positive, meaning "to become
visible"?

Second question, which is related to the first. I have the following sentence:
ナスはほぼカロリーないが、揚げ油が2/3くらい吸われてなくなる which I think I can translate for "Eggplants
have no calories but the suck 2/3 of the frying oil". However, it is using
なくなる which for me, it implies that the verb 吸う has been first converted into
negative form 吸われてない and then replace it by なくなる. The question is, how can it
have a positive meaning while having a negative conjugation?

Thanks.




  1. That's a good question. The grammatical opposite of 見えなくなる would be 見えるようになる (raw verb needs ように unlike the negative has adjective-adverb conjugation), but it's more strongly associated with the other meaning of 見える, "able to see". It's also natural to use 見えるようになる in the setting "come within the scope of sight" (e.g. 夏の星座が **見えるようになる** ), but for fading and emerging kind of visibility change, you could instead use 現れる "appear" or 出てくる "pop up" etc.

    * 「[見えなくなり、またあらわれ、また隠れ、またあらわれて](https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=lFcUKZBUeuAC&lpg=PT69&ots=P45kJFJqwC&dq=%22%E8%A6%8B%E3%81%88%E3%81%AA%E3%81%8F%E3%81%AA%E3%82%8A%E3%80%81%E3%81%BE%E3%81%9F%22&hl=ja&pg=PT69#v=onepage&q=%22%E8%A6%8B%E3%81%88%E3%81%AA%E3%81%8F%E3%81%AA%E3%82%8A%E3%80%81%E3%81%BE%E3%81%9F%22&f=false)」(A translation of _The Invisible Man_ by H. G. Wells)
  2. 「吸われてなくなる」 is two phrases, 吸われて、なくなる "be sucked, and lost" (≈ "be soaked up"). Do not confuse it with negative-passive-ている form 吸われて（い）ない ("not (yet) be sucked"). Actually, there's no chance of confusion, because you can't attach なる to 吸われていない, since ている and なる conflict as both semantically represent aspect-like feature of a verb.




  1. That's a good question. The grammatical opposite of 見えなくなる would be 見えるようになる (raw verb needs ように unlike the negative has adjective-adverb conjugation), but it's more strongly associated with the other meaning of 見える, "able to see". It's also natural to use 見えるようになる in the setting "come within the scope of sight" (e.g. 夏の星座が **見えるようになる** ), but for fading and emerging kind of visibility change, you could instead use 現れる "appear" or 出てくる "pop up" etc.

    * 「[見えなくなり、またあらわれ、また隠れ、またあらわれて](https://books.google.co.jp/books?id=lFcUKZBUeuAC&lpg=PT69&ots=P45kJFJqwC&dq=%22%E8%A6%8B%E3%81%88%E3%81%AA%E3%81%8F%E3%81%AA%E3%82%8A%E3%80%81%E3%81%BE%E3%81%9F%22&hl=ja&pg=PT69#v=onepage&q=%22%E8%A6%8B%E3%81%88%E3%81%AA%E3%81%8F%E3%81%AA%E3%82%8A%E3%80%81%E3%81%BE%E3%81%9F%22&f=false)」(A translation of _The Invisible Man_ by H. G. Wells)
  2. 「吸われてなくなる」 is two phrases, 吸われて、なくなる "be sucked, and lost" (≈ "be soaked up"). Do not confuse it with negative-passive-ている form 吸われて（い）ない ("not (yet) be sucked"). Actually, there's no chance of confusion, because you can't attach なる to 吸われていない, since ている and なる conflict as both semantically represent aspect-like feature of a verb.

