atw: Re: Split infinitives etc.

And at the core of the problem is the fact that someone, a very, very, very 
long time ago, decided that the English language had to be like the Latin-based 
languages and not have split infinitives, forgetting that it is impossible to 
split an infinitive in a Latin based language. I should know - being originally 
Portuguese, it took me a long time to understand what people where talking 
about when they mentioned splitting infinitives.

Personally, I prefer the "incorrect" "to boldly go where no man has gone 
before" than its correct form, as I also prefer the "incorrect" form of the 
sentence "from now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up 
with which I will not put."

But then, I am all for evolving language...

Have a great weekend all. Cheers,
Ana

--- On Thu, 16/4/09, Peter Martin <peterm_5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> From: Peter Martin <peterm_5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: atw: Split infinitives etc.
> To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Received: Thursday, 16 April, 2009, 9:21 PM
> To my mind, the most convincing example which indicates the
> problem of an absolute prescriptive rule against the split
> infinitive is one cited in the Wikipaedia article on the
> subject, from a publication by R.L. Trask   Thus:
> 
> "She decided to gradually get rid of the teddy bears
> she had collected."
> 
> Most of us have a problem with:
> 
> "She decided gradually to get rid of the teddy bears
> she had collected."
> 
> because it is at least ambiguous, and at worst, implies
> gradual decision making, (i.e. "gradually"
> modifies "decided") which isn't the intended
> meaning.
> 
> And there's a similar problem with:
> 
> "She decided to get rid of the teddy bears she had
> collected gradually."
> 
> because it may suggest that "gradually" modifies
> another verb, "collected", which also isn't
> the intended meaning.
> 
> So then we have:
> 
> "She decided to get gradually rid of the teddy bears
> she had collected."
> 
> or
> 
> "She decided to get rid gradually of the teddy bears
> she had collected."
> 
> But both of these possibilities appear to involve another
> form of splitting the infinitive!  I assume here that the
> (complex) infinitive form of the verb involved here is
> "to get rid of", and that it is just as nasty to
> split "get" from "rid of" or "get
> rid" from "of" as it is to split
> "to" from "get rid of".    If not, just
> what IS the rule to be ?
> 
> Meanwhile, the point is that :
> 
> "She decided to gradually get rid of the teddy bears
> she had collected"
> 
> is perfectly comprehensible to an English-speaking
> listener, and if she worka, no fixa!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -Peter M
>  peterm_5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>  
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