Questions about Neutral が － 見て、あの鳥があの虫を食べた。 Is this acceptable?


One of the usages of が is to describe something that is happening in front of
the speaker's eyes. I have read many example sentences in books and online,
they are often used with 自動詞 with ている and with あの, その... like Example 1.

**Example 1** ,

> 鳥が飛んでいる。

However, I wonder whether 他動詞 can be used also. And also can we add articles
before the noun? And do we have to use ている？

**Example 2** ,

> 見て、鳥が虫を食べている

**Example 3** ,

> 見て、鳥が虫を食べた。

**Example 4** ,

> 見て、あの鳥があの虫を食べた。

And Finally, does it have to be something happening in front of the eyes?

**Example 5** ,

> 私の想像の中で鳥が虫を食べている。




Simply put,

  1. Can 他動詞 be used?

Yes. All of 1-5 are grammatically correct.

  2. Must it be used with ている?

No. It depends on the meaning (which applies to cases of 自動詞).

  3. Does it have to be real?

No. It can be imaginary.

* * *

I don't know too well about birds, but my image of worm-eating birds is that a
bird flies down from above and picks up a worm, so it is an instantaneous
action. According to this preconception, 3 sounds more natural (or likely)
than 2, in the sense that 3 describes an instantaneous action. Sentence 2
sounds more like a bird chewing a worm (or keeping pecking lots of them) in
front of you. Sentence 4 is fine just as 2, but simply specific about which
bird and worm.

For comparison, 牛が草を食べている sounds more common than 牛が草を食べる. The latter sounds
_The cow is about to eat grass_.

Grammatically sentence 5 is fine but sounds a bit strange mostly because of
its meaning. Environmentalists often say things like 地球が泣いている, so it does not
have to be real.

