Ive noticed a sudden explosion of split infinitives in semi-reputable places*, as though the Writing World had decided, tacitly and all at once, that it was time to dispense with this grammatical superstition. (Fowler famously said, The split infinitive is an ugly thing, as will be seen from our examples below; but it is one among several hundred ugly things, and the novice should not allow it to occupy his mind exclusively.) Im trying to recall any convincing defense of the prohibition. (The best used to be that the people scoring your SAT essay would mark you down for it and that any multiple choice answer containing a split infinitive was a trap for the unwary, who selected it at their peril. The worst was, People will think you dont know Latin.) *Today, it is hard going to fully praise the series finale -- Rachel Syme on True Detective in The New Yorker† †Best line from Symes review, having nothing to do with split infinitives, Instead of a supernatural twist or dark existential nothingness, we got a mashup of Silence of the Lambs and Grumpy Old Men.”
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 13:06:33 +0000
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