Do the passive forms of godan verbs have any sense of potentiality?

Question

According to this answer https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/60055/55243 both the passive and potential sense of ichidan verbs derive from the root sense of "without someone's will". It goes on to list two examples where the difference in the passive and potential sense manifest themselves depending on the context:

雨に降られた。 Rain fell (against my will, and I was bothered).

(archaic Japanese) 弓矢して射られじ。 It never happens that you shoot them with an arrow.→ You cannot shoot them with an arrow. ≒ (modern Japanese) 弓矢で射られない。

I was wondering if the same thing was true for the passive of godan verbs since their passive forms share a common origin with ichidan verbs. So for example can you construct a sentence that brings out the "potential sense" of a godan verb in its れる-form? Like for example

本が読まれない reading is not being done = it is impossible to read

or do the passive forms of godan verbs never carry this additional sense of potentiality?

Answer 1

In modern language, so-called potential forms are used for godan verbs, so that passive forms are usually understood in the other senses (尊敬・受け身・自発) depending on contexts.

You can see examples of potential verbs below

• Wikipedia/可能動詞

Theoretically 本が読まれない can mean both passive and potential, but it mostly defaults to 'There are less people who read books'. It is possible to say '眼鏡がないと本が読まれない', which of course means potential ('Without glasses, I can't read'), but this sounds to say the least oldish. Normally people say '眼鏡がないと本が読めない'

So the answer to your question is yes and no. Passive forms of godan verbs (with れる・られる) carry both meanings, but usually defaults to passive.