真剣: Serious Expressions and a Sword on Display
Compare athletes listening with serious expressions with a request not to touch a real sword on display. Use the context to distinguish a quality from a physical object.
Serious expressions while listening
真剣 (しんけん) can mean serious or a real sword. 「選手たちは真剣な表情で説明を聞いた。」 — “The athletes listened with serious expressions.” 真剣な modifies 表情, the athletes' expressions. The Japanese sentence describes listening to an explanation with serious expressions.
A serious expression does not by itself establish understanding of the explanation. The sentence supplies no result about understanding or successful performance afterward.
An instruction about the displayed sword
「展示された真剣には触れないでください。」 — “Do not touch the real sword on display.” This 真剣 is the real sword on display. 触れないでください asks someone not to touch it, so the object differs from the expressions in the other example.
The instruction does not report that anyone touched the sword. Keep the displayed object and the prohibited action in view without adding an incident of contact or injury.
A quality and an object with the same spelling
In 真剣な表情, the word describes the quality of an expression. In 展示された真剣, it names the displayed object. The surrounding words distinguish the meanings despite the same spelling and reading.
Listening with serious expressions is a reported past action, whereas not touching the sword is an instruction. Keeping those sentence types distinct preserves both examples' scope.
Does the instruction not to touch the displayed 真剣 establish that a visitor actually touched it?
Show the answer and why
No. It prohibits touching without establishing that contact occurred. 真剣 here names the displayed real sword; 真剣な in the other example describes a serious expression.