Is this passive or potential form?


I’m having a hard time figuring out whether this is passive or potential or
both (if that’s possible)? And how would you literally translate it? Here’s my
attempt: As for in this essay, many mistakes of grammar can be seen.

この作文には文法の間違いがたくさん見られる。




Technically it is passive.

Such kind of passive form that takes inanimate subjects, 非情の受け身(inanimate
passive form), is considered an exceptional part of Japanese grammar. (Usually
passive forms in Japanese can only take animate subjects.)

It is worth noting that according to
[Daijisen](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E3%82%89%E3%82%8C%E3%82%8B-656590), the
inanimate passive form was initially imported to Japanese from Western
languages after the Meiji era.

So there is the possibility that the use of 見られる (is seen) in question:

> この作文には文法の間違いがたくさん見られる。

is actually derived from the English phrase "can be seen".

Please refer to this material for further information (it is written in
Japanese though)

<http://repository.tufs.ac.jp/bitstream/10108/57715/1/isre013001.pdf>

