amigo@iwpba.UUCP (amigo) (05/18/84)
Richard L. Wexelblat points out: >> Let's get concerned about things that matter! Like split >> infinitives! Fully 3-5% of the articles submitted (unencrypted) >> to news contain split infinitives. (The encrypted ones >> probably do but I'm afraid to ask my system guru how to >> decode them. He's already mad at me.) >> >> Let's get together to try to greatly improve the level of >> discourse on these networks! But net.flame is where we go to boldly split infinitives where no man has split them before. Anyway, W. H. Fowler himself says that it it all right to occasionally split an infinitive. [:-)] Seriously, the reason that splitting infinitives is not kulturny in English is that the old grammarians who tried to make English grammar match Latin grammar found that while it is possible to split infinitives in English--since the English infinitive is two words--it is not possible to split an infinitive in Latin, where the infinitive is just one word ("to love" in English becomes "amare" in Latin). Since their sense of propriety was offended, they declared that split infinitives in English was bad grammar. This is the same reason that ending a sentence with a preposition was forbidden. A sentence with a preposition at the end does not make sense in Latin, therefore it is decreed to be bad English. John Hobson AT&T Bell Labs--Naperville, IL ihnp4!iwpba!amigo
moriarty@uw-june (Jeff Meyer) (05/20/84)
>Seriously, the reason that splitting infinitives is not kulturny in >English is that the old grammarians who tried to make English >grammar match Latin grammar found that while it is possible to >split infinitives in English--since the English infinitive is two >words--it is not possible to split an infinitive in Latin, where >the infinitive is just one word ("to love" in English becomes >"amare" in Latin). Since their sense of propriety was offended, >they declared that split infinitives in English was bad grammar. > John Hobson > AT&T Bell Labs--Naperville, IL > ihnp4!iwpba!amigo Ah, yes, just another example of the multi-lingual conspiracy alive and flourising in this country. A bunch of foreign professors at some pinko college (probably Oxford or Cambridge or one of those other temples to Communism... bunch of pooftahs, the lot of 'em) get envious because our country has neutron bombs and cable TV and Joan Collins (I bet they want 'er back, too) and break dancing and Joe Bob Briggs and loads of fun stuff, and all they have is a pretty-good looking princess who they can fantasize over, and that's it (they don't even make very good cars either). So they decide to make fun of our language and tell us it ain't correct, just to make them feel superior. Well, let me ask all those stale limeys, how about all your cockney folks, huh? They can't even pronounce `h's. Pretty sad state all around if you ask me. Frankly, any country that can produce the likes of Rod McKuen has nothing to be ashamed of, literary-wise. "There... I've run rings 'round you logically" Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer UUCP: {ihnp4,cornell,decvax,tektronix}!uw-beaver!uw-june!moriarty ARPANET: moriarty@washington