Passive voice with ている

Question

When a verb in the passive voice is used in the ている form, what nuance does that carry?

Some examples:

図書館はいろいろな情報が集められています。
米は特にアジアで食べられています。
漢字は中国や日本などで使われています。
中国からお茶が輸入されています。

My interpretation is that ている is used because these are recurrent actions, things that happen all the time, such as customs or established practices.

But this is just an intuition, so to paraphrase my question, how would "図書館はいろいろな情報が集められています" be different from "図書館はいろいろな情報が集められます"?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Unlike English "to be -ing" form, Japanese ている-form can describe a habitual action or something that is always true.

• Habitual aspect

• When is Vている the continuation of action and when is it the continuation of state?

  古くなった細胞は毎日死んでいる。 Old cells die every day. (not are dying or have died)

  毎週大阪に行っている。 I go to Osaka every week. (not am going or have gone)

  This could be interpreted as a use of progressive aspect, but translating it into English with an -ing verb form doesn't work grammatically.

This is an independent function of ている in general. Your example sentences are simple combinations of the passive voice and this "habitual -ている". Thus, it's more natural to translate this 使われている as "is used" rather than "is being used". Please read the first link above for the difference between 集められます and 集められています. The first sentence can be rephrased as 図書館はいろいろな情報を集めています.

Depending on the context, (ら)れている can also be passive-progressive ("to be being -ed"). For example:

シマウマがライオンに食べられています。
A zebra is being eaten by a lion.