I think, robert, that you are entitled to your opinion about
splitting infinitives, but that it is a matter of opinion rather than
fact :-). Until quite recently in English dictionaries in the UK it
was condemned as grammatically incorrect, but around 8 years ago it
was accepted as merely a matter of style, thus supporting your
assertion. But ...
If you leave the infinitive complete the word "to" is much easier to
understand in a sentence, particularly a long or complex one. It is
true that split infinitives are easy to understand in isolation, but
when they are in a complex sentence they can make the sentence
overall more difficult to understand.
And they look clumsy, for my money. I remember seeing an option in
Word 5 or 6's grammar checker: how many words should be allowed
between the components and the infinitive before it becomes
grammatically incorrect.
Many of my complaints with modern idiom arise not because language is
changing, but because changes are based on misapprehensions of the
meaning of words or phrases owing to poor teaching in schools in
English-speaking countries. You might well be right about the
original resistance to splitting infinitives owing much to the fact
that it is impossible to do with "vigilare", for instance, but it was
probably resisted because it was wise to do so.
And I am happy because the subject is still alive and well; thanks
for making your points ... :-)
Chris
~~ >-)-
C M I Barker
Cambridgeshire, Great Britain.
+44 (0)7092 251126
www.threeshoes.co.uk
homepage.mac.com/zuiko
On 23 Nov 2005, at 21:24, Robert Swier wrote:
> It's worth pointing out that there is nothing wrong with splitting
> infinitive verbs in English. Doing so does not make the sentence
> harder to
> understand, and more importantly, many native English speakers do
> not find
> split infinitives unacceptable.
>
> It's reasonable to guess that the historical guidance against
> splitting
> infinitives in English may come from that fact that split
> infinitives are
> impossible in Latin and other related languages.
>
> Robert Swier
> Toronto
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