存在: investigating existence and feeling someone's presence
Compare an investigation into whether a forest creature exists with a family's presence as emotional support. Read the question of existence separately from a presence whose role is already described.
Investigating whether a creature exists
存在 (そんざい) can express being there or existing. 「森の奥に未知の生物が存在するか調べた。」 means “We investigated whether an unknown creature exists deep in the forest.” The creature is the subject whose existence was investigated.
The か in 存在するか marks the question of whether the creature exists, while 調べた reports the investigation. The sentence establishes that this question was examined. It does not separately give a discovery or a conclusion that the creature does not exist.
A family's presence as emotional support
「家族の存在が彼の心の支えになった。」 means “His family's presence sustained him emotionally.” The family's presence is described as support, rather than being the subject of a question about whether the family exists.
心の支えになった gives the emotional role that the family's presence had for him. No specific family action or treatment process is supplied. Read the presence and its role for this person without generalizing the effect to every family relationship.
An existence question and the role of a presence
In the creature sentence, 存在するか asks whether something exists, and that question is investigated. In the family sentence, 家族の存在 points to the family's presence and its supportive role. Check whether existence is being asked about or a presence is being described as meaningful.
Read the endings as well as the noun. 調べた reports investigating, while 支えになった describes the family's presence becoming support. A shared word does not make discovery of the creature or an unstated family action part of either sentence.
How does 存在 differ in focus between investigating whether a creature exists and describing the family's presence as emotional support?
Show the answer and why
The first focuses on whether the unknown creature actually exists. The second focuses on the family's presence and its emotional role. Reporting an investigation does not establish a discovery.