英语语法：67 Is "I'm Loving It" Proper Grammar?

Today, Bonnie Trenga will help us figure out whether a fast-food chain is on the cutting edge of grammar, or it’s just being creative with verb tenses. It’s time to dissect¹ the McDonald’s advertising² slogan “I’m loving it.”
An ESL teacher named Devaki wrote to say she uses the "I'm loving it" slogan in her classroom “as an example of incorrect grammar.”
The issue at hand is whether verbs like “to love” can be conjugated⁴ in a progressive tense, which you use to indicate that something is happening at the moment and is continuing around the time to which you refer. In fact, progressive tense is also sometimes called continuous tense. The most common progressive tenses are
Present progressive: “I am running some errands” (It's present progressive because it's happening right now.)
Past progressive: “They were jumping for joy” (It's past progressive because it happened in the past.)
Future progressive: “I will be writing my essay all day tomorrow.” (It's future progressive because it will happen in the future)
Note how all of these activities are progressive because they continued; they happened for more than an instant.
Dynamic Verbs versus⁵ Stative Verbs
It turns out that when it comes to progressive tenses, English is divided into two groups of verbs: dynamic and stative.
Dynamic verbs relate an action or a process. Common dynamic verbs are “to walk,” “to yell,” and “to read.” These verbs can be conjugated in progressive tenses, so it’s fine to say, “I will be walking all day” and “He was yelling at me.”
Stative verbs, on the other hand, describe a state of being and are not supposed to be conjugated in progressive tenses.
The About.com ESL site helpfully breaks stative verbs into four groups (1):
Verbs that show thought or opinion, such as “know” and “recognize” (I know her motives⁶.)
Verbs that show possession, such as “own” and “belong” (The dog belongs to me.)
Verbs that show emotion, such as “love” and “need” (I love Squiggly)
Verbs that show senses, such as “feel” and “see” (I see what you mean).
That last group is especially tricky⁷ because many of them can be stative or dynamic verbs depending on how you use them.
According to this division of verbs, you’re not allowed to say sentences such as “They are owning three cars” and “I am seeing the portrait.” Any native speaker will innately⁸ sense that those two sentences sound odd.
Verbs That Are Both Dynamic and Stative
As I noted⁹ earlier, complicating¹⁰ the issue is the fact that some verbs can be both dynamic and stative (2). Take, for example, the verb “to be.” You can use "to be" in a progressive tense to mean “to behave,” as in “You are being naughty.” In this case, “to be” is being used as a dynamic verb. On the other hand, if you say, “She is a blonde,” “to be” is being used as a stative verb. You couldn’t say, “She is being a blonde.”
Here's another example with the verb "think." You can say, “I think you’re cute,” which is stative, and “I’m thinking about going on vacation,” which is dynamic.
Idiomatic¹¹ Uses of Stative Verbs
According to the rule, “I’m loving it” is not grammatically correct because it uses a stative verb—in this case, one that conveys emotion, love—in a progressive tense.
But, now we come to some idiomatic uses of stative verbs. You can conjugate³ certain stative verbs in a progressive tense in the right context. I can easily imagine one lady saying to another, “Hey, Jean. I’m loving that new haircut!” On the other hand, it wouldn’t sound right to say, “I’m loving my mother.” You’d say, “I love my mother.” Another example might be the verb “to hear.” This is considered a stative verb, yet native speakers will be familiar with the statement “I’m hearin’ ya” to mean “I understand your point of view.” However, no native speaker would say, “I’m hearing the concert.”
The Verdict
“I’m loving it” does sound slightly off, and that draws attention. Perhaps that’s why McDonald’s chose it for their slogan, which launched in September 2003 (3). None of the dictionaries I checked sanction "loving" as a form of the verb "love," but the McDonald's slogan isn't the only instance where this sentence has been used in popular culture. Justin Timberlake has a 2003 song called “I’m Loving It” (4), and earlier the Scorpions¹² put out a song called “Still Loving You” (5), which contains the lyric¹³ “I’m loving you.” Just recently, glamour¹⁴.com had this to say about a maternity¹⁵ dress: “I’m loving the hot hue¹⁶, the sweet, off-the-shoulder neckline …” The article’s headline was “Loving Her Look: Amy Adams Redefines The Maternity Dress” (6).
We all know that advertisements, song lyrics¹⁷, and fashion headlines aren't the places to turn for examples of good grammar, but we also know that native speakers of English can get creative with traditional grammar, and that sometimes grammatically iffy phrases catch on. Language is constantly changing. Enough people seem to be using stative verbs in progressive tenses that we can probably say it’s becoming more accepted in popular culture to use them that way. That said, it’s still probably best for ESL teachers to continue to advise their students not to say, “I’m loving it” or to use other potentially incorrect stative verbs in progressive tenses. ESL teachers should point out, though, that students will hear native speakers using stative verbs in progressive tenses when the moment seems right.

1 dissect   

v.分割；解剖

参考例句：

• In biology class we had to dissect a frog.上生物课时我们得解剖青蛙。
• Not everyone can dissect and digest the public information they receive.不是每个人都可以解析和消化他们得到的公共信息的。

2 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

3 conjugate   

vt.使成对，使结合；adj.共轭的，成对的

参考例句：

• A partition that is its own conjugate is ealled self-conjugate.一个分析如与其自身共轭称为自共轭。
• It is important to learn to conjugate irregular verbs.学会不规则动词的变化是相当重要的。

4 conjugated   

adj.共轭的，成对的v.列出（动词的）变化形式( conjugate的过去式和过去分词 )；结合，联合，熔化

参考例句：

• Hemoglobin can also be cross-linked to solublepolymers to form so-called conjugated hemoglobin. 血红蛋白也能交联到水溶性多聚体上，形成所谓的共轭血红蛋白。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Similar delocalization is found in other conjugated systems. 在其他共轭体系中，也发现类似的离域。 来自辞典例句

5 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

6 motives   

n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• to impeach sb's motives 怀疑某人的动机
• His motives are unclear. 他的用意不明。

7 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

8 innately   

adv.天赋地；内在地，固有地

参考例句：

• Innately conservative, Confucius was fascinated by the last of these disciplines. 由于生性保守，孔子特别推崇“礼”。 来自英汉非文学 - 文明史
• Different individuals are innately fitted for different kinds of employment. 不同的人适合不同的职业，这是天生的。 来自互联网

9 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

10 complicating   

使复杂化( complicate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• High spiking fever with chills is suggestive of a complicating pylephlebitis. 伴有寒战的高热，暗示合并门静脉炎。
• In America these actions become executive puberty rites, complicating relationships that are already complicated enough. 在美国，这些行动成了行政青春期的惯例，使本来已经够复杂的关系变得更复杂了。

11 idiomatic   

adj.成语的，符合语言习惯的

参考例句：

• In our reading we should always be alert for idiomatic expressions.我们在阅读过程中应经常注意惯用法。
• In his lecture,he bore down on the importance of idiomatic usage in a language.他在演讲中着重强调了语言中习惯用法的重要性。

12 scorpions   

n.蝎子( scorpion的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You promise me that Black Scorpions will never come back to Lanzhou. 你保证黑蝎子永远不再踏上兰州的土地。 来自电影对白
• You Scorpions are rather secretive about your likes and dislikes. 天蝎：蝎子是如此的神秘，你的喜好很难被别人洞悉。 来自互联网

13 lyric   

n.抒情诗，歌词；adj.抒情的

参考例句：

• This is a good example of Shelley's lyric poetry.这首诗是雪莱抒情诗的范例。
• His earlier work announced a lyric talent of the first order.他的早期作品显露了一流的抒情才华。

14 glamour   

n.魔力，魅力；vt.迷住

参考例句：

• Foreign travel has lost its glamour for her.到国外旅行对她已失去吸引力了。
• The moonlight cast a glamour over the scene.月光给景色增添了魅力。

15 maternity   

n.母性，母道，妇产科病房；adj.孕妇的，母性的

参考例句：

• Women workers are entitled to maternity leave with full pay.女工产假期间工资照发。
• Trainee nurses have to work for some weeks in maternity.受训的护士必须在产科病房工作数周。

16 hue   

n.色度；色调；样子

参考例句：

• The diamond shone with every hue under the sun.金刚石在阳光下放出五颜六色的光芒。
• The same hue will look different in different light.同一颜色在不同的光线下看起来会有所不同。

17 lyrics   

n.歌词

参考例句：

• music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart 由罗杰斯和哈特作词作曲
• The book contains lyrics and guitar tablatures for over 100 songs. 这本书有100多首歌的歌词和吉他奏法谱。