Kirsi Käpynen 
Grammar II 
Spring 2004

"Non-Progressive" Verbs

1. Introduction

The use of the progressive usually implies duration in the action the 
verb denotes, and the action is accordingly perceived as being in 
progress, either at the time of utterance or, if the past tense is used, 
at the time the speaker refers to. Some verbs, however, have the 
duration included in their lexical meaning (Palmer 1988, 71), making the 
use of the progressive unnecessary, and in some cases unnatural or 
ungrammatical. These are verbs that grammarians call "non-progressive 
verbs", additional names being "stative verbs", or "non-conclusional 
verbs", the former indicating the characteristic of state that these 
verbs have and the latter emphasizing the incompleteness of the action 
described. But even though the non-progressive verbs are not normally 
used in the progressive, there are several special cases for many 
stative verbs in which the progressive is normal use, and it is 
debatable whether the choice of either progressive or simple always 
affects the meaning (Jørgensen 1991, 173; Quirk et al. 1985, 202).

2. Differences in uses of progressive or non-progressive

The most obvious difference between the simple and progressive is the 
duration. Quirk et al. note that the whole meaning of a sentence depends 
on whether the simple or progressive aspect is used (1985:197). We can 
contrast for example the two sentences 'She sings well' and 'She is 
singing well' and see that whereas the simple indicates a stable ability 
to sing, the progressive refers only to a specific instance of her 
singing. When we change the tense to the past, we get 'She sang well' 
and 'She was singing well'. Here the difference is somewhat more 
complicated, but according to Quirk et al., the former indicates the 
whole event of her singing, and the latter shows with duration the 
process of the event.

The non-progressive can also designate completion, while the progressive 
implies that the action is still incomplete. Palmer (1985:55) uses the 
example 'I painted the house this morning' vs. 'I was painting the house 
this morning', the difference being that in the first case the speaker 
has finished painting the house and the painting process is now 
complete, while in the second case the speaker has merely stopped 
painting, but not finished the whole process. There can be, however, 
difficulties in using the progressive, as it can be ambiguous depending 
on the context. 'I'm reading a book', for example, can mean either 
"right now, at the moment" or "I'm in the process of reading it, but not 
reading at the moment".

Quirk et al. state that since the progressive indicates something that 
is in progress, verbs like 'own' cannot be used in the progressive, 
because "every segment of a state has the same character as any other 
segment" (1985:198). This is why 'We own a house' is correct, but '*We 
are owning a house' is not. But if the progressive is used with a 
stative verb, it means that the state is transitory, and therefore 'We 
are living in the country' denotes a temporary residence, and 'We live 
in the country' a permanent one (Quirk et al. 1985, 199).

The use of the progressive or non-progressive can contrast the duration 
of a habit, as can be illustrated by 'The professor types his own 
letters' vs. 'The professor is typing his own letters' (Quirk et al. 
1985, 199). The simple means that the professor has a permanent habit of 
typing his own letters, but the use of the progressive limits the habit 
to a certain limited period of time, due to for example of his secretary 
being ill (1985:199).

Lastly, the progressive can give an impression of tentativeness or 
politeness. Quirk et al. give as an example the sentences 'I am hoping 
you will come' and 'What were you wanting?', which only differ from 
their non-progressive counterparts in that they make the speaker seem 
more tentative, and it is more polite than saying 'I hope you will come' 
or asking 'What did you want?' (Quirk et al. 1985, 202-203).

3. The non-progressive verbs

Non-progressive verbs, or stative verbs, can according to Leech and 
Svartvik be divided into four categories: perceiving, state of mind, 
relationship and state of being, and internal sensation (Leech & 
Svartvik 1994, 74-75). We are now going to get a closer look at the 
verbs in these categories and their different uses.

3.1 Verbs of perceiving

Leech and Svartvik name the category for the verbs see, hear, feel, 
smell, and taste as verbs of perceiving, as the verbs denote a physical 
perception (L&S 1994, 74). Palmer includes these in the category of 
"private verbs", because the speaker is the only one able to sense them. 
The normal use of these verbs is in the simple tense, as in 'I see my 
brother over there'. If there is need to denote a duration in the 
action, we can add 'can' to the sentence, as in 'I can see my brother 
over there', but according to Palmer, there is not much difference in 
meaning between the two sentences, unless we take an ambiguous sentence 
like 'I can see very small print', and contrast the two meanings of 
either perception or general ability (Palmer 1988, 73).

Quirk et al. discuss a few exceptional and rare uses of these verbs in 
the progressive, including the agentive perception. This means that 
although 'see' and 'hear' can be replaced by 'look at' and 'listen to' 
respectively to form agentive verbs of perception for example in 'I'm 
looking at these photographs' instead of '*I'm seeing these 
photographs', there are no counterparts like these for the verbs 'feel', 
'smell' or 'taste'. Consequently, these verbs have to act in the 
progressive themselves to form similar sentences: 'I'm smelling the 
roses' (1985:204). Further uses include 'look' in 'You look / are 
looking tired', with relatively the same meaning (1985:204). If the 
speaker wants to focus on the actual process going on while perceiving, 
the progressive can be used in cases like 'I'm not seeing things so well 
these days' (Quirk et al. 1985, 205), indicating a change in the ability 
to see. Finally, the progressive can be used to indicate "imaginary or 
hallucinatory" sensations (Palmer 1988, 75), perhaps in a somewhat 
sarcastic tone, as in 'You are seeing things', or 'He says he's hearing 
voices'. There is also a different meaning for 'see' in the progressive. 
It can be used in the sense of "meet" in cases like 'Will you be seeing 
Bill tomorrow?'

3.2 State of mind or feeling

In this category of stative verbs Leech and Svartvik include verbs 
denoting emotions, attitudes and intellectual states (L&S 1994, 74-75). 
Verbs like 'love', 'hate', 'like', 'dislike', 'suppose', 'understand', 
'think', 'wonder', 'know', 'want', 'wish', 'hope', 'remember' and 
'forget' do not usually occur in the progressive, but there are cases 
when the progressive is needed.

3.2.1 Love, hate, like and dislike

In his article Jørgensen lists uses for 'love' and 'hate' in the 
progressive, and states that the verbs are used to mean exactly the same 
thing they mean while in the simple form. The reason for using the 
progressive is therefore merely to show a temporary occurrence of the 
feeling that is "manifesting itself for a certain limited period of 
time" (Jørgensen 1991, 173), as in a sentence like 'She was hating every 
minute of it'. This means that the feeling is assumed to be more of a 
momentary attitude rather than a state of mind, although it is possible 
to have the permanent emotion about something but in a certain situation 
feel it so intensely that the use of the progressive is possible, as in 
Jørgensen's example 'You are hating being here', where the case is that 
the hate is a stable attitude, but is even more apparent in the actual 
situation of being in the place the person in question hates (Jørgensen 
1991, 173-174).

Jørgensen argues that 'love' is often used in the progressive as a 
synonym of "enjoy", and as a result, the progressive is a quite natural 
tense for the verb (1991:176). The temporariness is similar to the one 
of using 'hate' in the progressive, and the same example can be used for 
love: 'She was loving every minute of it'. 'Like' and 'dislike' are in 
Jørgensen's view often used to denote a feeling that has been changing 
in intensity, causing duration in the process and therefore needing the 
progressive to convey the duration: 'she was liking it less and less' 
(Jørgensen 1991, 176). Similarly, he gives an example of a question, 
where the speaker is asking the hearer whether she is liking her part in 
a play, which, by nature, only runs for a limited time, and consequently 
makes the use of the progressive natural. Furthermore, Jørgensen lists 
the uses of progressive to denote temporary fashions: 'They were liking 
that kind of thing just then' (1991:176).

3.2.2 Understand, think, wonder and know

These non-progressive verbs can be categorized as "intellectual states", 
and according to Quirk et al. they usually take a nominal clause as an 
object, as in 'I understand / *am understanding [that the offer has been 
accepted]' (Quirk et al. 1985, 203). Jørgensen finds the use of 
'understand' or 'misunderstand' in the progressive natural in cases 
where better understanding is hoped for, for example in a sentence like 
'I don't think [he] is fully understanding the problems...', which 
implies that a better understanding is possible (Jørgensen 1991, 179). 
He also gives an example of a negative sentence with understand in 
progressive, and states that this use shows that the understanding has 
not yet even become: 'No, you're still not understanding me'. The 
progressive is again implying a limited duration in the action, or a 
single instance rather than a general state misunderstanding between the 
speaker and the hearer.
	
Jørgensen (1991, 181) states that 'think', used in the progressive, can 
mean both an opinion and the process of thinking at the same time. In 
his view the example, 'But I am thinking it is not [he] who would have 
to...', additionally has an ironic tone. Palmer points out that the act 
of thinking in the progressive is a result of "overt action", and the 
difference between the simple and progressive is that the thinking in 'I 
think he'll come' requires less effort than in 'I'm thinking about it' 
(Palmer 1988, 75). Palmer also notes that the choice of progressive or 
non-progressive in 'I wonder / am wondering whether he'll come' affects 
the duration or the limitedness of the duration in the act, that being 
the only contrast in that use. 'Know', finally, is in Jørgensen's 
opinion simply a case of behaviour when used in the progressive. He 
gives as an example the sentence 'He was not knowing me again', which 
only denotes "a pose assumed for the occasion" (1991:180).

3.2.3 Want, wish and hope

As stated before, the use of 'want' in the progressive can imply 
politeness. We should then concentrate on the different uses of 'wish' 
and 'hope'. The case of 'wish' is similar to the progressive use of 
'think': Palmer's idea of "overt action" works with wish as well. 'I 
wish I were rich' and 'I'm wishing I were rich' differ in that in the 
progressive example a wish is being made, and in the simple one the wish 
just exists (Palmer 1988, 75). Jørgensen notes the high frequency of the 
use of 'hope' in the progressive, and points out the importance of the 
durative implication of this use, calling the use "dynamic" (Jørgensen 
1991, 174). He also argues that when used in the perfect tense, the 
progressive hope gets a meaning of "recent happening": 'I've been hoping 
you would come' (1991:175). The tentative aspect of using 'hope' in the 
progressive can also be due to an external force controlling the 
speaker's object of hope, whatever that might be. Jørgensen's example 'I 
was hoping to go away myself on Tuesday...' (1991:175) shows clearly how 
tentative the use is, and it depends on the hearer's decision whether 
the speaker will be able to go.

3.2.4 Remember and forget

With 'remember' and 'forget' the simple use is the dominating one, but 
there are several different circumstances where the progressive can be 
used to express something specific. Jørgensen notes the first one of 
these uses, remembering as a nostalgic act, "a mental dwelling on some 
reminiscences" (1991:177). It might also be used to show the surprise of 
the speaker in a dynamic sense: 'I asked whether they were remembering 
right' (Jørgensen 1991, 177). Forgetting, on the other hand, can mean a 
slow process happening over a period of time, and as Jørgensen points 
out, is usually made to imply that the facts or people in question 
should not be forgotten: 'He was forgetting to think whether he was in 
danger'; 'If he is forgetting us...' (1991:178).

3.3 Relationship and state of being

Verbs of relationship and state of being go under this category. Among 
others they include 'be', 'belong to', 'concern', 'contain', 'have', 
'own' and 'possess'. As these verbs are inherently stative, but there 
are some very common cases where the progressive is used. Leech and 
Svartvik (1994:75) note the use in a process or activity, as in 'They 
were having dinner', which is one of the most obvious cases. Other 
commonly used case is the use of 'be' in the progressive to denote a 
type of behaviour that is not necessarily characteristic or truthful: 
Quirk et al. give as an example the sentence 'Peter is being awkward', 
and 'Mary is being tired', which are grammatical clauses if the meaning 
is "Peter is acting awkward" and "Mary is pretending to be tired" 
(1985:200).
	
Leech and Svartvik do not include a notion of 'verbs of stance' in their 
categories, but it might be appropriate to include them under 'state of 
being' anyway. Quirk et al. mention the verbs 'live', 'stand', 'sit' and 
'lie' as belonging to this category, and their uses in the progressive 
differ according to whether the state is permanent or temporary, for 
example 'The city lies on the coast' / 'People were lying on the beach' 
(1985:206).

3.4 Internal sensation

The verbs for internal sensations are perhaps the least 
"non-progressive", as in some cases the progressive forms are completely 
interchangeable with their simple counterparts. Leech and Svartvik 
mention examples like 'My back hurts / is hurting' (1994:75), where 
there is no difference in meaning between the two. The case is similar 
with feel in examples like 'I feel / am feeling ill', but suffer does 
not act in the same way (Palmer 1988, 74).

4. Conclusions
	
With all the examples of the use of the progressive with 
"non-progressive" verbs, there are hardly any verbs that completely 
reject the progressive use. The cases of possible progressive uses are 
so numerous that questioning the use of the term "non-progressive" 
altogether is a valid point. Some uses of the progressive act to 
contrast the difference between the same sentences expressed with the 
simple tense, but in some cases the meaning is the same, one approach 
merely being more appropriate for a certain case than the other.

Works Cited:

Jørgensen, Erik. "The Progressive Tenses and the So-called 
'Non-conclusive' Verbs." 'English Studies 2' (1991), 173-182

Leech, G. and Svartvik, J. "A Communicative Grammar of English." Harlow, 
1994. 133-139

Palmer, F.R. "The English Verb." 2nd edition. Longmans, 1988.

Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G. and Svartvik, J. "A Comprehensive 
Grammar of the English Language." London: Longman, 1985. 197-213