How do you tell when 言っている is progressive or resultive?


ている verbs can indicate either the result of something (死んでいる) or that you are
in the process of doing something (食べている). However, I am having trouble
differentiating between the two with certain verbs such as 言っている. For example,
in the following dialogue

『もっと触れてもいい？』 『それって、髪だけのことを言ってるの？』

I am not quite sure if it would be "saying" or "what you said."




I think an easy rule like this could apply:

  * If you can insert 「もう」 in the sentence without any problem, then it is resultive (彼には言ってる → 彼にはもう言ってる) "I already told him"

  * If you can insert 「今」 in the sentence without any problem, then it is progressive （それって、髪のことを言ってるの？ → それって、髪のことを今言ってるの？） (It does get slightly weird, but it remains logically correct)

So I would think for the sentence in your example, 「言ってる」 is progressive.




I think an easy rule like this could apply:

  * If you can insert 「もう」 in the sentence without any problem, then it is resultive (彼には言ってる → 彼にはもう言ってる) "I already told him"

  * If you can insert 「今」 in the sentence without any problem, then it is progressive （それって、髪のことを言ってるの？ → それって、髪のことを今言ってるの？） (It does get slightly weird, but it remains logically correct)

So I would think for the sentence in your example, 「言ってる」 is progressive.

