Is ある or いる used for moving water?


Much has been written about the distinction between ある and いる, such as which
is appropriate for robots or corpses.I know water is usually referred to with
ある, but in a sentence such as 'この川にはいっぱい水が「ある/いる」', where the speaker is
talking about moving water and not a source of water, which verb is correct?
If a person wanted to indicate that the water was stagnant, would the use of
ある get the message across, or would 溜まり水 or 止水 be necessary to communicate the
meaning?




The question is not one of 'movement', but rather 'animacy' - i.e. how close
to having human consciousness the entity in question is thought to be. Humans
are of course close to human consciousness, as are things like gods or
fictional sentient species, so you use いる. Pets and other animals can go
either way, depending on how much humanity the speaker wants to grant them.
Inanimate objects are always ある, since they are far from having human
consciousness.

So water will never be いる unless you want to ascribe some kind of spiritual
personal sentience to it. Normal water will always be ある.




The question is not one of 'movement', but rather 'animacy' - i.e. how close
to having human consciousness the entity in question is thought to be. Humans
are of course close to human consciousness, as are things like gods or
fictional sentient species, so you use いる. Pets and other animals can go
either way, depending on how much humanity the speaker wants to grant them.
Inanimate objects are always ある, since they are far from having human
consciousness.

So water will never be いる unless you want to ascribe some kind of spiritual
personal sentience to it. Normal water will always be ある.

