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ESL forum >
Grammar and Linguistics > Linguistic Jokes continued
Linguistic Jokes continued
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Apodo
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Split infinitives:
A fine example of an artificial �rule� which ignores standard usage.
The famous witticism usually attributed to Winston Churchill makes the point well:
�This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.�
Found on this interesting English usage page:
And a riddle dependent on homophones:
Riddle: What is the difference between a boxer and man with a cold?
Answer: A boxer knows his blows and a man with a cold blows his nose. |
10 Mar 2012
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ldthemagicman
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�Excuse me. Is this The �Word-for-Word, Spanish � English, Conversation Class�?�
�If. If. Between!!� |
10 Mar 2012
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yanogator
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Speaking of the "rule" never to end a sentence with a preposition, there �s the story of the child whose father brought the wrong book to read to her at bedtime, and she said, "What did you get the book that I didn �t want to be read to out of down for?" (FIVE prepositions at the end) Ah, the joy of phrasal verbs! Bruce |
10 Mar 2012
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ueslteacher
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So, anyway, is it legit to split infinitives, Alex? Sophia |
10 Mar 2012
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almaz
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Well, Sophia, as Raymond Chandler once wrote to an over-zealous copy editor, "...when I split an infinitive, goddammit, I split it so it stays split."
There is no rule of English grammar which requires the marker �to � and the uninflected verb (the plain form/infinitive) to always be adjacent. If I wanted to really split an infinitive, I could - but I �m too lazy to in-bloody-vent an example.
There are bucketloads of wrongheaded �rules � which bedevil traditional grammar books, but investing in a good usage guide (like Merriam-Webster�s Dictionary of English Usage - which comes highly recommended by well-respected linguists and grammarians the world over) is definitely worthwhile.
EDIT: MWDEU is available online at Google books (see here) |
10 Mar 2012
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yanogator
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Alex, Splitting infinitives is so natural that you did it without even realizing it. Just before you said that you were too lazy to invent an example, you wrote "to always be". See, you �re just a natural! In your sentence, it would sound awkward to say either "always to be adjacent" or "to be always adjacent". I think that all (or at least most) of the native speakers here would agree that "to always be adjacent" has the best sound of the three possibilities. Bruce |
10 Mar 2012
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