About -eru and -aru verb pairs that are not transitive/intransitive counterpart of each other


Most -eru and -aru pairs of verbs that I know are transitive/intransitive
counterparts of each others. For example, 見つかる is the intransitive counterpart
for the transitive 見つける, and 変わる is the intransitive counterpart for the
transitive 変える.

But there is one special pair of -eru and -aru that I know for sure is not
transitive/intransitive. They are actually both transitives:

> 預ける {あずける}  
>  預かる {あずかる}

Furthermore, the beautiful part of this pair is they are complementing each
other by having each one of them covering the opposite sides of the action of
預ける / 預かる:

> 子猫のチーを預けました。 I entrusted (someone) to take care of Chii the kitten.
>
> 子猫のチーを預かりました。 (Someone) entrusted me to take care of Chii the kitten.

Are there any other pairs of -eru/-aru verbs that have the similar relation
with each other? Is there special class of verbs for this kind of verb pairs?
Or is 預ける / 預かる the only pair?

p/s: I'm not sure how to write -eru in hiragana; 〜える looks weird because it
seems to only covers verbs that literally end with える like かえる etc.




The pair 預ける・預かる is actually not irregular at all: it belongs to a class of
_verbs of conveying_ (mostly giving and saying) that behaves differently in
this regard in many languages.

To see that we have to look at the relations between transitive and
intransitive verbs (as well as passive and active verbs) from a linguistic
point of view - this is something that linguists call Valency (or Valence).
From this point of view, verbs have a set of arguments that specify all of the
participants that took part in the event described by the verb. Each of the
arguments is marked differently than the other (in English using word order
and prepositions, in Japanese with particles alone).

The verb 預ける has three arguments (not all of them have to be explicitly
specified of course):

>   * {giver}[が]{ }{recipient}[に]{ }{deposit}を預ける
>

The verb 預かる has three arguments specifying the very same roles, but they are
marked differently:

>   * {recipient}[が]{ }{giver}[に]{ }{deposit}を預かる
>

Normally, pairs of transitive and intransitive verbs also have the marks on
their arguments switched, but instead of switching 'the subject' (marked by が)
with the argument marked by に, they switch it with the argument marked by を,
which is usually (and rather inaccurately) called 'direct object', due to the
bad influence of traditional Latin grammar.

>   * {discoverer}[が]{ }{discovered}を見つける
>   * {discovered}[が]{ }{discoverer}に見つかる
>

Verbs of saying and giving, however, work in a different ways. I can't think
of -eru/aru pairs of such verbs, so I'll give examples of active/passive pairs
instead:

The verb argument pattern of the verb 与える:

>   * {giver}[が]{ }{gift}[を]{ }{recipient}に与える
>

has at least two possible pair patterns with the passive verb 与えられる:

>   * {recipient}[に]{ }{giver}[から]{ }{gift}が与えられる
>   * {recipient}[が]{ }{giver}[[に・から]{ }]{gift}を与えられる
>

The second option is the which interests us, because almost the same thing
happens with 預かる:

> （私が誰かに）子猫のチーを預けました。 I entrusted Chii the kitten to someone.
>
> （私が誰かに）子猫のチーを与えた。 I gave Chii the kitten to someone.
>
> （私が誰かに）子猫のチーを預かりました。 Someone entrusted me to take care of Chii the kitten.
>
> （私が誰かに）子猫のチーを与えられた。 Someone gave me Chii the kitten.




The pair 預ける・預かる is actually not irregular at all: it belongs to a class of
_verbs of conveying_ (mostly giving and saying) that behaves differently in
this regard in many languages.

To see that we have to look at the relations between transitive and
intransitive verbs (as well as passive and active verbs) from a linguistic
point of view - this is something that linguists call Valency (or Valence).
From this point of view, verbs have a set of arguments that specify all of the
participants that took part in the event described by the verb. Each of the
arguments is marked differently than the other (in English using word order
and prepositions, in Japanese with particles alone).

The verb 預ける has three arguments (not all of them have to be explicitly
specified of course):

>   * {giver}[が]{ }{recipient}[に]{ }{deposit}を預ける
>

The verb 預かる has three arguments specifying the very same roles, but they are
marked differently:

>   * {recipient}[が]{ }{giver}[に]{ }{deposit}を預かる
>

Normally, pairs of transitive and intransitive verbs also have the marks on
their arguments switched, but instead of switching 'the subject' (marked by が)
with the argument marked by に, they switch it with the argument marked by を,
which is usually (and rather inaccurately) called 'direct object', due to the
bad influence of traditional Latin grammar.

>   * {discoverer}[が]{ }{discovered}を見つける
>   * {discovered}[が]{ }{discoverer}に見つかる
>

Verbs of saying and giving, however, work in a different ways. I can't think
of -eru/aru pairs of such verbs, so I'll give examples of active/passive pairs
instead:

The verb argument pattern of the verb 与える:

>   * {giver}[が]{ }{gift}[を]{ }{recipient}に与える
>

has at least two possible pair patterns with the passive verb 与えられる:

>   * {recipient}[に]{ }{giver}[から]{ }{gift}が与えられる
>   * {recipient}[が]{ }{giver}[[に・から]{ }]{gift}を与えられる
>

The second option is the which interests us, because almost the same thing
happens with 預かる:

> （私が誰かに）子猫のチーを預けました。 I entrusted Chii the kitten to someone.
>
> （私が誰かに）子猫のチーを与えた。 I gave Chii the kitten to someone.
>
> （私が誰かに）子猫のチーを預かりました。 Someone entrusted me to take care of Chii the kitten.
>
> （私が誰かに）子猫のチーを与えられた。 Someone gave me Chii the kitten.

