aspects of communities

Question

"Busy new island of civilization appeared where there had been dumps and marches and potato fields. Little sleeping towns that had had many of the aspects of communities hundreds of miles from a metropolis were astonished to wake up and find themselves all but incorporated into the city limits, with populations that doubled and tripled in a decade."

Would you please tell me what "aspects of communities" means in this context?

Thank you.

Cadzao

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

Aspects of communities = characteristics of communities. They knew each other, helped each other, etc.

BarbaraPA · Answer

Also, I've only heard "sleepy" for little towns, not sleeping. Is it possible it was "sleepy"?

Cadzao · Answer

According to the text taken from Tastemakers by Russell Lynes, "sleeping", not sleepy, is used for little towns. As far as I understand,  the author wanted to lay an emphasis upon the fact that these town were being in the peaceful and quiet state, then happened to "wake up and find themselves all but incorporated into the city limits, with population that doubled and tripled in a decade."

BarbaraPA · Answer

If you google "sleepy towns" and "sleeping towns" you'll see over 19,000 for the first and about 900 for the second, so it's clearly more common to say sleepy.

But this concept of the city creeping up on them "while they sleep" makes it a good choice for this context, I guess.

Cadzao · Answer

Thank you, Grammar Geek, for proving that "sleepy" is more common than "sleeping".

Smiles,

Cadzao

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