sleptwalked

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birdeen's call

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Here (23:45), I think Edward Norton said "sleptwalked". I think it was just a slip of tongue, but I want to make sure I'm right. Are there people for whom this is the normal past form of the verb "sleepwalk"?
 

Chicken Sandwich

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I'd say that it's definitely a slip of tongue, because the correct past form is "sleepwalked". It's quite understandble why he said it. He meant to say "sleepwalked", but he took the past form of "sleep" and "walk" and put them together, hence "sleptwalked".

By the way, there are no examples of "sleptwalked" on COCA, but there 22 of "sleepwalked".
 

birdeen's call

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I'm asking because the form is mentioned in Wiktionary as a rare, non-standard form. I'm not sure if I should understand that it's used rarely and non-standardly only when someone makes a mistake or jokes, or if it's used regularly by some people.
 

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I'm asking because the form is mentioned in Wiktionary as a rare, non-standard form. I'm not sure if I should understand that it's used rarely and non-standardly only when someone makes a mistake or jokes, or if it's used regularly by some people.

I've found the link you're referring to. I've never seen it used.

Indeed, there are some non-standard words, such as "researches", which, according to Longman, is fine ( research - Definition from Longman English Dictionary Online ), but as members of this forum have pointed out in ths thread, this word is so rare that many native speakers would consider it incorrect, or non-standard at the very least. I would not use either "researches" or "sleptwalked", but I can only speak for myself, obviously.
 

5jj

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I can't really say whether it's used regularly by some people, because I don't hear even the regular form used regularly. I imagine that it's used only as a mistake or joke, but it may be common in speech. Sorry, I don't know.
 

5jj

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In the three hours since I submitted my last post, the words have been going round my mind. The more I think about them, the more acceptable (or perhaps less unnacceptable) 'sleptwalked' sounds. It has no citations in either BNC or COCA, and 'sleepwalked' does, so I would advise any students, if they ever needed to speak of this activity in the past tense to use 'sleepwalked'. But, I think it may not sound wrong to some (many?) native speakers.
 

birdeen's call

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Well, it does seem that neither Norton nor Ferguson noticed that during the interview.
 

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It sounds completely wrong to this native speaker.
 

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Well, it does seem that neither Norton nor Ferguson noticed that during the interview.

Either that or Ferguson just didn't bother correcting his grammar :). It surely would have made for an interesting question for us, 'I'm sorry, sleptwalked?', although I'm guessing that most of his audience wouldn't have cared for his linguistic investigation.

If I ever hear a native speaker say "sleptwalked" - although that's not very likely to happen as I very rarely hear people talk about this activity - I'll be sure to ask whether that was what he or she meant or whether it was a mistake. I'm quite curious now.
 
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birdeen's call

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Either that or Ferguson just didn't bother correcting his grammar :). It surely would have made for an interesting question for us, 'I'm sorry, sleptwalked?', although I'm guessing that most of his audience wouldn't care for his linguistic investigation.
Certainly. That's why I used the word "seem". :)
If I ever hear a native speaker say "sleptwalked" - although that's probably not very likely to happen as I very rarely hear people talk about this activity - I'll be sure to ask whether that was what he or she meant or whether it was a mistake. I'm quite curious now.
Please do, and don't forget to post!
 

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Interesting thread. First, the only Ed Norton I know was played by Art Carney on The Honeymooners TV series. So, my first reaction was that it was meant to be humorous. In any case, I'm for "sleepwalked" or to avoid any "double-takes", "he/she walked in his/her sleep last night".
 
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