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Pastimes : SI Grammar and Spelling Lab -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jbe who wrote (1593)	11/17/1998 1:14:00 PM
From: E	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4711

What an absolutely wonderful post! One of my favorite SI posts. I like it so much that I'm saving it to My Documents, naming it "jbe on split infinitives." Thank you! (And thanks for the links, too.)

To: jbe who wrote (1593)	11/17/1998 7:07:00 PM
From: Dayuhan	Respond to of 4711

Wow. Never knew there was so much to be said on the splitting of infinitives. My own rule, for infinitives and practically everything else, is simple and entirely subjective. When in doubt, read it aloud. Roll it around a bit and see how it tastes. If you like the way it sounds, and it says what you want to say, use it. If not, trash it and do it again. Steve

To: jbe who wrote (1593)	11/19/1998 6:37:00 AM
From: Jack Clarke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4711

Hi Jbe: Your post is clearly the definitive statement on the split infinitive argument, if there every really was one. I have always thought that splitting an infinitive was no more a transgression than separating the auxiliary from the verb with an adverb, as in: I have nearly completed my work. Our two-word infinitive can almost be thought of as an auxiliary+verb construction. But no matter, your post says it all, and I will file it with my most important grammatical documents. Best, Jack

To: jbe who wrote (1593)	11/24/1998 4:57:00 PM
From: Jacques Chitte	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 4711

There might be one way to unsplit the infinitive in your example. It involves "cheating" on another level however. We can replace "enter" v.t. with "enter v.i., giving us an unsplit form that looks and sounds rather good, at least to me. :-) It does pass Steven's "read it aloud" test. The queen told the page to enter quietly into the chamber where the king was sleeping. Btw, I think that in the prologue to each The Next Genitalia episode, hearing Patrick Stewart's commanding voice sing out "to go boldly where no one has gone before" would have sounded... well, right. Opinions?