5 ms·

The excuse I heard was that an infinitive in English is two words but corresponds to a single word in Latin, and, of course, as all good Latin experts know, Eng

by graycat 12y ago

The excuse I heard was that an infinitive in English is two words but corresponds to a single word in Latin, and, of course, as all good Latin experts know, English grammar should be as much like Latin as possible! So, since can't split a single word infinitive in Latin, we shouldn't in English! So, "to be" is okay but "to not be" would be bad. "To an infinitive split" would be awful! So, string me up if I were to badly split an infinitive!

jcrites 12y ago
Sometimes it just sounds better. Why it does is an interesting question for linguists. "To boldly go where no man has gone before" "We are determined to completely and utterly eradicate the disease." "She wants to gradually get rid of her teddy bears." "Writers should learn to not split infinitives." It's also not always possible to eliminate the split infinitive, or the infinitive, without changing the direct or implied meaning of the sentence. "She wants to get rid of her teddy bears gradually" works fairly well. "Boldly going where no man has gone before" is close, but doesn't capture the same challenge, summons, call to action as the original. Nor does it sound as pleasing.
- graycat 12y ago
  For the stuff inside the split infinitive, it can to tough to know where else to put it. So, what would we want? "Boldly to go where ..." or "To go boldly where ..."? To be really clear that 'boldly' modifies 'to go', it's easiest to split the infinitive. Your "She wants to gradually get rid of her teddy bears." is terrific! There's just no good other place to put 'gradually'! In case you misunderstood me, for grammar for English, really I have no sympathy for what the heck Latin did!
  - mrpoptart 12y ago
    > There's just no good other place to put 'gradually'! She wants to get rid of her teddy bears gradually.
    - tekromancr 12y ago
      Not an english expert, but would "She wants, gradually, to get rid of her teddy bears" work?
      - graycat 12y ago
        Problem is, without thinking about the likely meaning, at first glance it's not clear what 'gradually' modifies, that is, it may modify 'wants', that is, her wanting is only gradual and not yet full; such are some of the possibilities of subtlety of meaning with the English language!
        tekromancr 12y ago
        Ohh, I see the confusion there, but I like the ambiguity it causes. It reminds me of "Pretty little girl's school"
    - graycat 12y ago
      I thought of that but regarded 'gradually' as too far, too many words away, from 'get', the word it is modifying.
      - aninhumer 12y ago
        It's not as good as the split infinitive, but it works okay despite the distance, because it's modifying the entire sentence.
        graycat 12y ago
        When I was diagramming sentences, they never let me modify "the entire sentence"! Maybe the reason was that Latin never did that!

by graycat 12y ago

jcrites 12y ago

Sometimes it just sounds better. Why it does is an interesting question for linguists. "To boldly go where no man has gone before" "We are determined to completely and utterly eradicate the disease." "She wants to gradually get rid of her teddy bears." "Writers should learn to not split infinitives." It's also not always possible to eliminate the split infinitive, or the infinitive, without changing the direct or implied meaning of the sentence. "She wants to get rid of her teddy bears gradually" works fairly well. "Boldly going where no man has gone before" is close, but doesn't capture the same challenge, summons, call to action as the original. Nor does it sound as pleasing.

graycat 12y ago
For the stuff inside the split infinitive, it can to tough to know where else to put it. So, what would we want? "Boldly to go where ..." or "To go boldly where ..."? To be really clear that 'boldly' modifies 'to go', it's easiest to split the infinitive. Your "She wants to gradually get rid of her teddy bears." is terrific! There's just no good other place to put 'gradually'! In case you misunderstood me, for grammar for English, really I have no sympathy for what the heck Latin did!
- mrpoptart 12y ago
  > There's just no good other place to put 'gradually'! She wants to get rid of her teddy bears gradually.
  - tekromancr 12y ago
    Not an english expert, but would "She wants, gradually, to get rid of her teddy bears" work?
    - graycat 12y ago
      Problem is, without thinking about the likely meaning, at first glance it's not clear what 'gradually' modifies, that is, it may modify 'wants', that is, her wanting is only gradual and not yet full; such are some of the possibilities of subtlety of meaning with the English language!
      - tekromancr 12y ago
        Ohh, I see the confusion there, but I like the ambiguity it causes. It reminds me of "Pretty little girl's school"
  - graycat 12y ago
    I thought of that but regarded 'gradually' as too far, too many words away, from 'get', the word it is modifying.
    - aninhumer 12y ago
      It's not as good as the split infinitive, but it works okay despite the distance, because it's modifying the entire sentence.
      - graycat 12y ago
        When I was diagramming sentences, they never let me modify "the entire sentence"! Maybe the reason was that Latin never did that!