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Hello, Neil. |
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On Wed, Dec 28, 2016 at 02:09:10PM +0000, Neil Bothwick wrote: |
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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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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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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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> -- |
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> Neil Bothwick |
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|
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-- |
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Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany). |
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