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On 28/12/2016 16:58, Alan Mackenzie wrote: |
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> Hello, Neil. |
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> |
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> On Wed, Dec 28, 2016 at 02:09:10PM +0000, Neil Bothwick wrote: |
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> |
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>> Don't forget split infinitives - the construct that is absolutely |
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>> forbidden, but no one knows why. I had a production editor who picked me |
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>> up every time I used one. I pointed out that that battle was lost as soon |
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>> as Star Trek became mainstream. |
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> |
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> I have a theory about this. If you write "we need to thoroughly think |
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> this through", what is the verb? It tends to become "to |
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> thoroughlythink" rather than "to think". This coupling of adverb and |
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> verb into a single word is probably undesirable. Hence, no split |
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> infinitives, please. |
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> |
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> For what it's worth, in German, when there's a "zu" (to) in front of an |
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> infinitive, it is _never_ separated by even the first part of a |
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> separable verb, never mind an adverb. |
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Well, German is a language after all, a real one with definite rules. |
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English is a mish-mash of any good (and sometimes not so good) ideas |
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that English people came into contact with. Oddly enough, of the 5 major |
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input sources to modern English, the smallest contribution is from |
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English itself. Go figure :-) |
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As for split infinitives, no-one familiar with types of words would ever |
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think "thoroughly" is a verb, it's an adverb. The verb is "to think". |
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English is there so speakers can use it to communicate, not so that |
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natural language parsers can have an easy time or grammarians can sit |
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smugly and "be correct". The people created English, let the people |
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decide what is proper |
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-- |
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Alan McKinnon |
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alan.mckinnon@×××××.com |
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