Thanks, Michael.

Yes, I'm familiar with this usage of psych verbs.  You're right, 'to love something' can be very different from 'to be loving something'.  But with this group of psych verbs we often expect human participants, and we see humans as acting with intention.  So, unless the event were instantaneous, you would expect to be able to use the progressive. 

 

But "mean" is different because you can have non-human subject participants as well, so I think that is what struck me about Tim's example.

 

Hmmm, well, actually, the following two examples with the other group of psych verbs would mean something different, wouldn't they?

 

The mask was frightening me.

The man was frightening me.

 

The interesting thing about the mask example is that the frightening event needs to be measured on the object participant 'me'.  So the process of becoming more and more frightened would be evident on 'me.'

But with the man frightening me, you've got a different kettle of fish.  Does the sentence refer to what the man is doing or what process is happening to me?  You can imagine how this sentence might seem ambiguous, right?  Only the speaker would know for sure.

 

 

Linda