atw: Split infinitives etc.

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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