stative verbs vs. dynamic verbs
Dear professor: I have a stupid question here: When reading Harry Potter, I've found some confusing examples of state verbs in progressive form. I've been told that the state verbs, such as "know", "see", and "hear", etc., do not have -ing form. for example, We say "I know/I've known..., and we don't say "I'm knowing.... but in the book, I've found some examples which seems to be ungrammatical. Could you help me?
"Yeah, you will be," said Ron darkly, "we're seeing the skrewts again on Monday. Okay, Tuesday, I'll …erm…"
Hagrid led Madame Maxime around a clump of trees and came to a halt. Harry hurried up alongside them - for a split second, he thought he was seeing bonfires, and men darting around them - and then his mouth fell open.
The sea was rushing against the rock somewhere nearby; Harry listened to it while the others talked, discussing matters in which he could take no interest, making decisions, Dean carried the injured Griphook into the house, Fleur hurrying with them; now Bill was really knowing what he was saying.
'Why not?' asked Jason, stirred and pained at what he was hearing. 'Why didn't they report him?'
'Because he always brought them out - most of them out -when the order of battle seemed
hopeless.'
I think you've just shown why the original "rule" you heard, is wrong.
The only one of the bolded examples that even bears a second glance is "now Bill was really knowing what he was saying." I think JK Rowling here chose this word (instead of a more common Bill really knew) to show the currency of the event. To say he knew, might suggest it was an older knowledge or understanding. Now, however, he is really knowing, really understanding.
thank you very much.
Stative Verbs - Glossary Definition - UsingEnglish.com
The key is how a word is being used in a given context. Using the example of see, in the sentence "I'll be seeing the doctor tomorrow" the word "seeing" is not being used as a stative verb.
see definition | Dictionary.com
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