The split infinitive

Saturday, November 8th, 2008

I don't know an exact definition of the infinitive of a verb so I shall stick with my own perception. The infinitive of a verb seems to be its very root and takes the form of thing like 'to ....' as in 'to go', 'to walk', 'to celebrate' etc. Traditional English grammar thinking says that you should put nothing between the 'to' bit and the verb that follows. For then the infinitive is split. Well, yes, for so it would be. And of course that is serious bad news for the most famous split infinitive of all time - Star Trek's 'to boldly go.'

I don't get this. In English (as distinct from many other languages), we bung the adjective in front of the noun so why not the adverb in front of the verb? If kept simple, the meaning is perfectly clear and thereby fulfills the requirement of any language which is to communicate clearly.

I feel strongly about this. My very first boss would never tolerate any split infinitive in my advertising copywriting and one of the last used to drone on for hours if ever I used one. Both were tedious.

It is not my purpose to suggest that the infinitive is split willfully but if it is done in moderation and as comes naturally, then so be it.

All of this has nothing to do with the corruption of word meanings for that is a wholly different subject and can lead to misunderstanding.