Meaning of ~たりしたため

Question

Respected readers,

I have come across the following phrase from an online article : (extract from https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/k10011524021000/k10011524021000.html).

家に水が入ってきたりしたため避難所で生活している人もたくさんいます。

I get the meaning of the phrase, but my difficulties are about きたりしたため。

a. Is it right to think that it originates from 来る and the form「～たりする」to express multiple actions (or states) ? but to me, there is only one action stated in the phrase...now I am very confused.

b. Would it be incorrect to use ために instead of ため in this phrase ?

Answer 1

So, きたりする does come from くる. But in this case, it is used in the form Verb ~te + くる (don't usually use the kanji in this form). This combination is used quite frequently. This website does a great job of explaining it's uses: http://selftaughtjapanese.com/2015/01/27/special-uses-of-the-japanese-verb-%E6%9D%A5%E3%82%8B-kuru-to-come/

The use of たりする in this case likely indicates that there is actually more reasons than just the floodwater for people's evacuation. That sentence could be rendered as, "Because of factors like (mainly) the water flooding people's houses..."

Lastly, ため(に). Inserting the に does not change the meaning significantly, although in this usage I rarely hear it. There are some technical grammar rules for when you can or can't drop the に, but 要するに it doesn't affect the meaning.

Good luck!