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Badfan Posted 21 years ago
Linguistics Studies

Which state verbs can be used in progressive?

0 Hello everybody, 02br
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00I'm doing some research for my final paper at university, and I'm not a native speaker of English, so I'd really appreciate your help! 02br
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00According to the Vendlerian verb classes (or categories) English state verbs normally don't have a progressive form. However, some do appear in the progressive (i.e., "he's being stupid") 02br
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00So, which state verbs come to your mind that sometimes appear in a progressive form? And could you please also give a short context/situation for when this happens? 02br
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00One example we came across in class was the advertisement phrase "I'm loving it". What do you feel as a native speaker when you hear this? Does it feel odd to you? Or does it actually have a specific meaning? 02br
00Are there similar examples in other advertisements? 02br
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00Well, that's quite much I'd like to know, but I'd be happy about any little contribution, even if you just dropped me an example phrase! 0-
  

Top answer

0 It seems to me that the use of the non-progressives in the progressive tenses amounts to changing the meaning of the verb, whether greatly or slightly. 02br 02br 00I'm loving it = I'm (really) enjoying it. I'm (really) relishing it.

— CalifJim

  • 0 It seems to me that the use of the non-progressives in the progressive tenses amounts to changing the meaning of the verb, whether greatly or slightly.
  • 02br 02br 00I'm loving it = I'm (really) enjoying it.
  • I'm (really) relishing it.
  • 02br 00I'm liking it (similar) 02br 00I'm being bad = I'm behaving badly.
  • Compared to my normal behavior, I'm acting badly now.
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7 Answers
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0 It seems to me that the use of the non-progressives in the progressive tenses amounts to changing the meaning of the verb, whether greatly or slightly. 02br
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00I'm loving it = I'm (really) enjoying it. I'm (really) relishing it. 02br
00I'm liking it (similar) 02br
00I'm being bad = I'm behaving badly. Compared to my normal behavior, I'm acting
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0 Hi CJ 02br
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00Thanks so much for this list! 05002br
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00And I guess you're right - There seem to be some "rules" how the progressive changes the meaning of non-progressives, (and also exceptions from these rules...) : 02br
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00So there seem to be 02br
00- entering a state, 02br
00- entering a sta
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0 I would say no, the non-progressive tenses of "see" do not connote an amorous relationship. 02br
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00The ??? meant that I feel there's a way to contextualize this remark, but I don't know how to paraphrase it! It would be very rare, I'm guessing, for anyone to say this, but I seem to be able to assign some sort of sensible meaning to it. 02br
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i also have a question... in this sentence... "Now you can understand why, Gandlaf, listening to their groqling and yelping, began to be dreadfully afraid..."

is 'understand' a state verb in this context?

is 'began' a state verb?

or would 'be' be the first state verb in this sentence?
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Often when a nonprogressive verb is being used with progressive aspect, the meaning is different. It's as if verb is actually a different word. The example given above "seeing someone" is a great example, as "see" in this sense doesn't mean "look at". Another good example is "having a baby", which doesn't mean the same thing as "possess" in the standard sense.

What's happening here is tha
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State verbs as you correctly say are not usually used in the progressive. It is possible however to do so in some cases. This, however, can change the meaning. The English language is constantly developing and evolving and previous unaccepted usage of the language has become 'accepted'. McDonalds are almost solely responsible for the stae verb 'love' being used in the progressive. Because of their
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hello badfan,

personally I feel that the phrase 'I'm loving it' sounds odd in British English but it feels like a kind of American street slang. It's also used in Estelle's song 'American Boy' when she says, 'I'm loving this American boy.' I think it's quite trendy amongst certain groups of people.

Hope this is of use to you.

Ruth x
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