TextView defines all capabilities found on EditText, but doesn't have built-in support to them. Some main differences on EditText:
a) Method getDefaultEditable() returns true. This is only a mark that defines this subclass as editable.
b) A movement method. Is an object that control the cursor behavior (position, backward/forward moves - that may change in some languages, etc). In opposition, TextView just returns null, because is not cursor anyway.
c) Method CharSequence getText(). TextView returns a single String for that. EditText uses a specific char sequence implementation (Editable) that represents a mutable text buffer.
Because that, we can't think about TextView like a restrained EditText. TextView sketch the editoring interface, but not implement itself.
If you need a text component that you can switch off editing sometimes, you are looking for the EditText component.