Non progressive verbs. Was seeing, was looking good

Question

Non progressive verbs are not used in continuous, right?

But what about, for example, sentences like:

"Gazing absently over the rooftops, it was a few seconds before Harry realised what he was seeing." (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban),

or

"She was looking good" (Rajesh in the "Big bang theory"). Can it be concluded, that non progressive verbs actually can be used in Past Continuous?

Possible duplicate of Stative verbs in the continuous form?, but I'm convinced there's a better treatment here somewhere. // Ah, I'm happier with 'wanting' or 'want'?. — Edwin Ashworth, Mar 24 '18 at 12:09
Generally, but not always. Both your examples are fine. In the second, "was looking" has a static, not dynamic, meaning. In the first, the element "what he was seeing" is an interrogative - in which "what" is direct object - and thus has a dynamic meaning. — BillJ, Mar 24 '18 at 14:42

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 24 '18 at 11:48

It is my understanding that some stative verbs can be used continuously. Sometimes this changes their meaning, or simply refers to a specific period in time, rather than something constant. In the case of TBBT, we might assume that in this particular instance, the person looked (was looking, rather) good.

I am not sure if we can do this same with HP; "was looking at" might be a better choice.

See here for more information: http://www.grammaring.com/state-verbs-and-action-verbs

(apologies for the layout. Can't seem to make the link function work on my phone)

Non progressive verbs. Was seeing, was looking good

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