{"id":22151,"date":"2014-02-07T17:43:53","date_gmt":"2014-02-07T22:43:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=22151"},"modified":"2014-02-11T14:20:21","modified_gmt":"2014-02-11T19:20:21","slug":"to-split-or-not-to-split-that-is-the-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2014\/02\/to-split-or-not-to-split-that-is-the-question\/","title":{"rendered":"To Split or Not to Split: That Is the Question"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Hamlet\"<\/a>One of my former students, Sean Samis, sent me this blog about split infinitives<\/a>. The infinitive version of a verb is \u201cto __\u201d (to run, to speak, to write, etc.). To split the infinitive refers to placing an adverb between the \u201cto\u201d and the rest of the verb. The example often given is from Star Trek: \u201cto boldly go . . .\u201d Boldly is the adverb splitting the infinitive \u201cto go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The article recounts a story about diplomatic negotiations between the U.S. and Great Britain that led to the Treaty of 1871. As the story goes, the British conceded certain points to the U.S. in the treaty, but would not allow the language of the treaty to contain any split infinitives. According to Yale Professor Thomas Lounsbury, as quoted in the blog, the British sent a telegraph that the treaty\u2019s wording \u201c\u2019would under no circumstances endure the insertion of an adverb between the preposition to (the sign of the infinitive) and the verb.\u2019\u201d Professor Lounsbury was recalling the treaty in 1904.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But today is 2014, 110 years later. What do grammarians think of splitting the infinitive now? Before we attempt to answer that question, let\u2019s go back even further in time to the Elizabethan age and Shakespeare. Hamlet in his soliloquy<\/a> is mindful of not splitting the infinitive in the famous line, \u201cTo be, or not to be: that is the question.\u201d In fact, infinitive verb forms punctuate the entire passage, as a few lines later he says,<\/p>\n

To die, to sleep;
\nTo sleep erchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And,<\/p>\n

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My own college professors were apt to note the importance of not splitting the infinitive, such that my habit is to avoid the split. In doing so, I have come to notice the placement of adverbs when I use them\u00a0in sentences. Some authorities suggest avoiding most adverbs as unnecessary<\/a>. That advice is good because\u00a0eliminating adverbs\u00a0places more emphasis on the verb. But, if I choose to use\u00a0an adverb, thinking about whether to place it before the verb or after helps me to consider more carefully the point I\u2019m making.<\/p>\n

When an adverb splits an infinitive, the adverb gets buried a bit. Consider the following: Boldly to go . . . to boldly go . . . to go boldly . . .<\/p>\n

In the first example, placing boldly at the front puts emphasis on the adverb. In the third example, the emphasis is on the word go. In the middle example, boldly gets lost\u00a0when splitting\u00a0to and go.<\/p>\n

Another consideration is cadence and rhythm in the sentence. If you change the way you stress the words in the \u201cto boldly go\u201d examples, you can affect the natural emphasis of the words based on their position in a sentence. The rest of the words in the sentence may also affect the way the adverb\u2019s placement reads in the sentence. Thinking back to Hamlet\u2019s soliloquy, Shakespeare started the lines quoted above with the infinitive. \u201cTo\u201d takes special strength in the beginning of the lines. (You can, by the way, hear Hamlet’s soliloquy\u00a0performed at Marquette <\/a>in April.)<\/p>\n

So, what do the modern writing texts say about split infinitives?\u00a0 Professors Anne Enquist and Laurel Oates, in Just<\/em> Writing<\/em>, call the rule against splitting an infinitive a myth.\u00a0 They\u00a0note that the rule against splitting the infinitive comes from the attempt by English grammarians to “conform [English] to Latin grammar.”<\/p>\n

This all seems terribly silly until you remember that at the time English was considered an inferior, upstart, unruly language; and Latin was considered a superior, well-designed, systematic language.\u00a0 Moreover, devising a grammar that actually described the way English was used was unheard of at the time.\u00a0 The purpose of grammar, it was thought, was to bring order to a langauge raging out of control. (22)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Let’s remember that Shakespeare\u00a0studied Latin in grammar school.<\/p>\n

Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty also calls the rule against splitting the infinitive a myth to be dispelled.\u00a0 She says “[i]t’s fine to split infinitives, and sometimes, I split them when I don’t have to just to maliciously make a point.”\u00a0 (Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing<\/em>, 55)\u00a0 Finally, my favorite grammar book, The Gregg Reference Manual<\/em>, allows a writer to split the infinitive, unless “it produces awkward construction and the adverb functions more effectively in another location.”\u00a0 (279)\u00a0 So, in 2014, you may choose to split or not split–it’s your call.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my former students, Sean Samis, sent me this blog about split infinitives. The infinitive version of a verb is \u201cto __\u201d (to run, to speak, to write, etc.). To split the infinitive refers to placing an adverb between the \u201cto\u201d and the rest of the verb. The example often given is from Star […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal-writing","category-public","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22151\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}