Oh! My stuff is keeping disappearing.

[it-is-niaz]

What is the difference between the following?

Oh! My stuff is keeping disappearing.
Oh! My stuff keeps disappearing.

 

[tedmc]

The first is wrong.

 

[teechar]

The second is possible.

 

[it-is-niaz]

The first is wrong.

May I ask the reason?

 

[teechar]

The verb "keep" in the sense of continue to do something is not used in the progressive tense as it is considered a stative verb. Do you know what those are?

 

[it-is-niaz]

Do you know what those are?

Yes I do. I just watched some videos in YouTube regarding stative verbs. Thanks for the explanations.

 

[tedmc]

on youtube

 

[Phaedrus]

The verb "keep" in the sense of continue to do something is not used in the progressive tense as it is considered a stative verb.

Interestingly, the progressive does work with continue; but if the replacement were made, the gerund complement would need to be replaced by an infinitive:

My stuff is continuing to disappear.

 

[Tarheel]

It will stop disappearing when it's all gone.
:lol:

 

[Rover_KE]

on YouTube

:up:

 

[jutfrank]

Interestingly, the progressive does work with continue; but if the replacement were made, the gerund complement would need to be replaced by an infinitive:

My stuff is continuing to disappear.

Yes. This partly explains why I don't believe that keep in My stuff keeps disappearing can be considered a stative verb.

 

[Phaedrus]

Yes. This partly explains why I don't believe that keep in My stuff keeps disappearing can be considered a stative verb.

What do you suppose it is?

 

[jutfrank]

What do you suppose it is?

I guess one could read it as stative, as: My stuff is in a state of continual disappearing, but I feel that it better belongs in another class, though I can't yet suggest which one, or give a convincing reason why. I'm working on it, though ...

Do you see it as stative? Could you explain why so? Do you know of any tests for stativity?

 

[Tdol]

I sometimes get the feeling that we claim that a verb is stative because it is not used in the the progressive; it is not used in the progressive because it is stative.

It's certainly not a solid state verb in this case.

 

[teechar]

And to complicate matters further, consider the use of "keep" in the sense of maintain:

The money is keeping him quiet for now.
He's keeping things under wraps.

To me, "keep" is still stative in the above examples; I mean it's hardly an action verb. And yet, it works with the progressive.

Conclusion: There are no hard-and-fast rules about how we designate a verb as stative, nor about whether stative verbs can work in a progressive structure.

 

[jutfrank]

Conclusion: There are no hard-and-fast rules about how we designate a verb as stative

For me, it's quite simple: if the verb signifies a state, then the verb can be said to be stative. What can be a matter of disagreement is what counts as a state.

The trouble I have with this example is that it seems to be about a repeated action (keeps disappearing), and so does not qualify as signifying a state in the normal sense of the word. Part of the sense of the concept of 'state' is that there is no action, no change.