Looking forward

Question

Recently I've seen a sentence with "looking forward". Could you explain why it contains a progressive aspect. Doesn't this phrase mean a thought process which cannot be seen and thus must be regarded as stative and be used without progressive?

Consider a sentence like

I am looking forward to repaying your kindness.

It would be helpful to see the entire sentence and to know something of its context. — Barrie England, Mar 08 '12 at 07:39
What's the difference between “I look forward to” and “I'm looking forward to”? — RegDwigнt, Mar 08 '12 at 08:28
To me, "Look forward" describes a static continuous state; "looking forward" is more transient. "I'm looking forward to your call, but if someone shows me a LOLcat I'll probably forget about it." — Joe McMahon, Mar 09 '12 at 02:44

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 08 '12 at 08:08

There are a number of verbs expressing perception, emotion, wishing and thinking that do not normally have a progressive form, and it's reasonable to think that look forward to should be among them. In fact, both I look forward to . . . and I am looking forward to . . . are possible in your example. The progressive form implies a more temporary state and, for that reason, is probably more likely to be used in speech than in writing.

Looking forward

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