verbs - Why is 〜に受かる used to mean "to pass"?

I'm having trouble understanding why 〜に受かる means "to pass". What would the equivalent logic in English be for this phrase? (Something like the intransitive form of receive?)

Also, why is the particle に used with 受かる, here?

Answer

Snailboat's link is a very interesting read and you should read it if possible (the following answer is mainly based on it).

First, one should note that the first usages of 受かる exist from the Meiji period. This means it is a relatively new word. Around this time, there was something called [言文一致運動]{げんぶんいっちうんどう}, where people were trying to change the written language to match what was spoken. As noted in this link, 受かる is mainly used in spoken language (主に、話し言葉で用いる), so it may have existed before the Meiji period in spoken language, but the main point from this is that it is a relatively new word which evolved out of spoken language.

As you may have already noticed, 受かる is somewhat irregular. It comes from the verb 受ける but only means 合格する and has no other meaning in modern Japanese (according to any modern dictionary). (However, this always wasn't the case though, as there was the usage 電波が受かる).

Note that many verbs come in pairs (which can be seen as transitive/intransitive), for example 見る/見える or 温める/温まる, were を is used for the former and が is generally used for the latter. Originally, 受かる followed this pattern and が受かる was used. However, this evolved into the modern usage に受かる and the が usage has died out. Why? Because 受かる has a restricted meaning, i.e. it only means 合格する and nothing else. Note that this meaning is not the intransitive form of receive, and using the が form would make it look like that. Also, since the opposite is 試験に落ちる which uses に, に becomes a nice fit.

So, how did 受かる come to have such a restricted meaning? Simply due to the fact that there is no need for an intransitive form of 受ける. Any intransitive use can be replaced by another verb which is more appropriate, like 電話がかかる for 電話を受ける. Also, when you think of the transitive/intransitive pairs, generally the intransitive form is the result of the transitive. For example, in the examples 牛乳を温める/牛乳が温まる, the result of the act of warming milk is having warm milk. But what is the result of taking a test? The result would be whether you passed or failed, not just the fact that you have taken it, this why it naturally flows that 受かる came to mean "to pass".

There is a lot more in the pdf that explains things better than I do, but to sum it up

• 
  

  受かる evolved naturally out of spoken language.

  
  
  


• 
  

  It does not carry the meaning of the intransitive form of receive because it can be replaced by better alternatives and there is no use for it.

  
  


• 
  

  It changed to the に form because it better fits with the opposite に落ちる and because it does not fit into the transitive/intransitive pairs like other verbs.

  
  

I may have mistakes in the above, so please let me know, but hopefully this helps!