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Split infinitive: Difference between revisions
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A bogus “rule” of English {{tag|grammar}}, the prohibition on split | {{g}}{{pe}}A bogus “rule” of English {{tag|grammar}}, the prohibition on [[split infinitive]]s frowns self-righteously on interposing an {{tag|adverb}} in middle of a {{tag|verb}}al infinitive. | ||
One should, according to this disposition, prefer “to go quickly” over “to quickly go”. | One should, according to this disposition, prefer “to go quickly” over “to quickly go”. | ||
But there is no such rule in English. Why would there be? What is special about the [[infinitive]] form? No pedant, however contumelious, has ever explained why it would be any less offensive to say | But there is no such rule in English. Why would there be? What is special about the [[infinitive]] form? No pedant, however contumelious, has ever explained why it would be any less offensive to say “[[I]] quickly go” (not an infinitive, and apparently perfectly acceptable) than “''to'' quickly go”. | ||
Nor can this aversion have derived, as some have claimed, from {{tag|Latin}}. Latin infinitives (''ire'', or ''amare'') have no {{tag|preposition}} to brazenly split. | Nor can this aversion have derived, as some have claimed, from {{tag|Latin}}. Latin infinitives (''ire'', or ''amare'') have no {{tag|preposition}} to brazenly split. | ||
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It fell to an American TV producer, Gene Rodenberry, to forever put the matter beyond doubt. | It fell to an American TV producer, Gene Rodenberry, to forever put the matter beyond doubt. | ||
:''To boldly go where no man has gone before.'' | |||