Turning adjectives into verbs

Question

Using がる turns adjectives into verbs and adds a "appears to" meaning. For example:

嫌がる (na-adjective)

美味しがる (i-adjective)

Is there ever any point (from a usage perspective) in turning adjectives into verbs?

Answer 1

美味しがる (i-adjective)

I've never heard おいしがる, I think people would usually say something like おいしそうに食べる or something. But it seems to exist:

何でこんなものをイギリス人は美味しがって食べるのか。理解に苦しむ。

.

Is there ever any point (from a usage perspective) in turning adjectives into verbs?

Yes, the point of 嫌がる is to talk about another person's reaction to something.

Answer 2

~がる has specific limitations on how it can be used. It is not correct to say it simply 'turns an adjective into a verb' since it only does so under very particular conditions. It can also be used with other verbs.

~がる is an auxiliary verb which is used to indicate that a person other than speaker appears to (want, do) something. It is often used as a replacement for instances in which the speaker might use ～たい or ～ほしい. Since you can't really know what someone else is thinking, using ~がる is a way of ascribing a psychological state to that person based on some kind of overt or apparent behavioural clue. For example,

トムはビールを飲みたがっている。Tom wants to drink beer (= Tom appears to want to drink beer).

その男の子が眠たがっている。That boy wants to sleep (= That boy appears to want to sleep).

お父さんは新しい車を欲しがっている。 My father wants a new car ( = My father appears to want a new car).

Answer 3

You might think 田中さんはケーキを食べたい means Mr. Tanaka wants to eat cake but this is wrong. You use the たい-form for expressing your own desire only. In such cases, you use ～がる.

Refer for further reading: http://maggiesensei.com/2013/01/15/%e3%80%9c%e3%81%9f%e3%81%84%ef%bc%86%e3%81%8c%e3%82%8b-tai-garu-and-%e3%80%9c%e3%81%8c%e3%82%8agari/