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How to Avoid a Splitting Headache
A: Ah, the split infinitive question. Perhaps no other grammatical issue incites more righteous indignation, most of it unjustified.
Just what is a split infinitive? An infinitive is the tenseless form of a verb preceded by "to," as in "to go" or "to eat." Splitting an infinitive is placing an adverb or adverb phrase between the "to" and the "verb," as in "to quietly go" or "to joyfully eat."
The split infinitive was cruising along very happily in English, thank you, until the late 1800s. That's when classically-minded grammarians decreed that, because infinitive forms of Latin verbs couldn't be split, English infinitives shouldn't be split either.
Soon teachers and editors were indoctrinating students and writers with this pedantic prohibition. As a young English teacher during the 1970s, for instance, I regularly scolded my students for using split infinitives.
The prohibition on split infinitives does have three seductive charms: 1. It's a simple rule that everyone can understand. 2. It's sometimes valid. 3. It has a catchy name.
To amplify on No. 2, splitting an infinitive is sometimes unwise because doing so buries the all-important adverb. "Try to correctly write this" (split) is weaker than "Try to write this correctly" (unsplit).
But in many cases, a split infinitive sounds smoother and more rhythmic than an unsplit one. The classic example of a justified split is found in the phrase from the "Star Trek" TV series: "To boldly go where no man has gone before." "To go boldly" would sound stilted.
Similarly, "This will allow us to better serve you" sounds more natural than "to serve you better," especially because the unsplit version places "better" in the spot where a direct object might be found, as in "This will allow us to serve you butter."
And sometimes an unsplit infinitive can lead to ambiguity. In the sentence, "This will allow us better to serve you," for instance, "better" could modify the verb "allow," which changes the meaning of the sentence.
So, feel free to split an infinitive when doing so prevents awkwardness or ambiguity. This will allow you to better serve your reader.
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Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Conn., invites your language sightings. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via e-mail to Wordguy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 5777 W. Century Blvd., Suite 700, Los Angeles, CA 90045. To find out more about Rob Kyff and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
Copyright 2009 Creators Syndicate Inc.
This news arrived on: 10/21/2009
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Posted Comments:
10-31-2009 10:30
Roslyn Talerman wrote:
split infinitives
I am an old lady and am trying to make peace with split infinitives. It is hard.
10-27-2009 14:40
Sheryl Nagy wrote:
Dangling, Misplaced something
Just found a good example of faulty reference, or misplaced modifiers which you had a column about fairly recently. Fairly recently had a column about? It's from the canoe.ca news network, the Winnipeg Sun I believe.
Quote: "The male allegedly stabbed a 32-year-old woman who was also attending the party before fleeing. The victim was taken taken to hospital, where she was treated for non-life threatening stab wounds to her shoulder and released."
Quote: "The male allegedly stabbed a 32-year-old woman who was also attending the party before fleeing. The victim was taken taken to hospital, where she was treated for non-life threatening stab wounds to her shoulder and released."
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