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I have the sentence:

この国に生まれ老い、良かったと死んでゆける高齢化社会。

This is the first time I've seen 「死んでゆける」 or 「ゆける」. What does it mean? Is this a grammatical form? I also tried looking up more examples with 「ゆける」here, but there are only a few, and I'm not able to derive the meaning yet.

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  • We also write it as 死んで'い'ける, the potential form of 死んで'い'く. (死んで'ゆ'ける and 死んで'ゆ'く sound more literary to me.) We also have 「[生]{う}まれてくる」、「[生]{い}きていく(生きてゆく)」...
    – user1016
    Aug 15, 2012 at 3:27
  • ところで・・・the いく in 死んでいく has a nuance of "離れる/going away" and the いく in 生きていく has a nuance of "続ける/~~on, continue ~~"
    – user1016
    Aug 16, 2012 at 15:28

1 Answer 1

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yuke-ru (行ける) is a verb meaning "can go" or "is possible". It derives from the potential form of the verb yuk- (行く). "an aging society in which one can die being grateful for being born and growing old in this country"

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  • Thanks, I didn't even consider「行く」when I should have. Is it normal for it to be written in hiragana as opposed to kanji?
    – Chris
    Aug 14, 2012 at 22:25
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    Either is fine, but I typically see it in hiragana. Consider it being written in kanji: is it read ikeru or yukeru? That is one motivation.
    – Dono
    Aug 14, 2012 at 22:28
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    Since it's speaking of dying, wouldn't it more likely be 逝ける?
    – istrasci
    Aug 14, 2012 at 22:56
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    It's typically written in hiragana when used with the って form of the verb, as is くる.
    – Jeemusu
    Aug 15, 2012 at 0:03
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    @Gradius Note though that both iku and yuku are already extant in Nara period texts.
    – Dono
    Aug 15, 2012 at 5:23

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