Timeline for If “I woke up at 10” is okay, what about “I slept at 10”?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
15 events
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| Mar 23, 2015 at 21:20 | comment | added | DoctorDestructo | @DCShannon Yes, I'm in the US. In fact, it's strange that our experiences would be so different. I'm an Iowan, just like you (were). | |
| Mar 23, 2015 at 21:08 | comment | added | DCShannon | @DoctorDestructo If you said you ate at 11:30 I wouldn't think too much about how long it took, but if I did I would assume it was probably half an hour or so. If you later made a reference to eating at 1:00, then at that point I would probably stop you and try to clarify if you were eating again or still eating, as that's quite some time later. If someone near me said they fell asleep at a certain time and you teased them, I would expect everyone in the room to look at you like you were a crazy person. Your profile doesn't say where you are located. Are you in the US? | |
| Mar 23, 2015 at 19:20 | comment | added | DoctorDestructo | @DCShannon I'm a little confused. If I say "I ate at 11:30", would you assume my meal took roughly a half hour, or roughly one minute? I'd say you're assuming too much either way. Such statements aren't meant to imply anything about the duration of the activity. You're right that we've had different experiences, though. I rarely, if ever, hear people mention the specific time at which they fell asleep, and I'd probably tease them about it if I did. (e.g. "How do you know when you fell asleep? Were you involved in a sleep study? Did your wife shoot you with a tranquilizer gun?"). | |
| Mar 23, 2015 at 17:32 | comment | added | DCShannon | @DoctorDestructo I added a paragraph that mentions 'ate' vs 'slept'. | |
| Mar 23, 2015 at 17:31 | history | edited | DCShannon | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Mar 23, 2015 at 17:21 | comment | added | DCShannon | @DoctorDestructo Apparently you've a different experience, but saying that one has fallen asleep at a certain time is something that I hear daily. I made the distinction between 'going to bed' and 'going to sleep' because these are both common phrases that have different meanings. I may not know the exact time I fell asleep, but I know right about when I closed my eyes and stopped remembering things. Because the precision of the statements here is to the hour (ate at 10) I would expect any activity commonly taking over an hour (unlike eating) to require a different phrasing. | |
| Mar 23, 2015 at 16:46 | comment | added | DoctorDestructo | @Ben Voigt How long does an activity have to take before it can be considered extended? | |
| Mar 23, 2015 at 16:32 | comment | added | Ben Voigt | @DoctorDestructo: The action of "eating" definitely is not instantaneous, but neither is it extended (in Western cultures, anyway) | |
| Mar 23, 2015 at 14:13 | comment | added | DoctorDestructo | @Ben Voigt The fact that you compared eating to waking up instead of falling asleep (which would have been more relevant in the present context) demonstrates that it's not about duration, but rather, what can and can't be known. People usually know what time it is when they wake up. Looking at a clock is often the first thing they do. That's why statements like "I woke up at 8" are common, while statements like "I fell asleep at 10" aren't, even though they're really two sides of the same coin. | |
| Mar 23, 2015 at 13:03 | comment | added | DoctorDestructo | @Ben Voigt A meal also has an "extended and indefinite duration", but its start time is usually known and even scheduled in advance, which makes it a very common topic of conversation. By contrast, you almost never know the specific time at which sleep begins. Except in a few specific contexts, any statement that provides a start time for the act of sleeping will sound awkward. It's the subject matter that makes it so, not the grammar. It really doesn't matter how you say it. The statement "I fell asleep at 10" is just as likely to be questioned as "I slept at 10", if not more so. | |
| Mar 22, 2015 at 3:07 | comment | added | Ben Voigt | @DoctorDestructo: I don't think the answer is lacking anything. The contrast between "sleep" and "wake" is clear, and if one asks why "eat" acts like "wake", it shouldn't take them very long to figure out that "eat", like "wake", is a short-term action, not one of extended and indefinite duration like "sleep" | |
| Mar 21, 2015 at 2:21 | comment | added | DoctorDestructo | This is definitely the most complete answer, but to make it the definitive answer, I think you should mention the apparent inconsistency of rejecting "I slept at 10" while accepting "I ate at 10". If I was an ELL, that might make me wonder if there was some obscure grammar rule that I missed somehow. | |
| Mar 20, 2015 at 21:49 | history | edited | DCShannon | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Mar 20, 2015 at 21:44 | history | edited | DCShannon | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Mar 20, 2015 at 21:26 | history | answered | DCShannon | CC BY-SA 3.0 |