Action or motivation that arises naturally from within a person rather than from external pressure; spontaneity (often seen as 自発的).
彼の自発的な発言が会議の雰囲気を変えた。
His spontaneous remark changed the mood of the meeting.
子どもたちは自発的に掃除を始めた。
The children started cleaning on their own (spontaneously).
その行為は指示ではなく本人の自発によるものだ。
That action was due to the person's own spontaneity, not an instruction.
(Linguistics) The 'spontaneous' or 'inchoative' sense of passive constructions that indicate an action occurring naturally or involuntarily (often called the spontaneous passive).
日本語には自発受身という表現があり、『窓が開けられた』のように自然発生を表すことがある。
Japanese has a 'spontaneous passive' expression; for example, a sentence like 'the window was opened' can express a naturally occurring action.
この文の受け身は自発の意味で解釈される。
The passive in this sentence is interpreted with a spontaneous meaning.
自発の受身は話し手が出来事の自然発生を強調したいときに使われる。
The spontaneous passive is used when the speaker wants to emphasize that an event occurred naturally.