Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 14:44:16 +1030 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: Mark Ovens <marko@uk.radan.com> Cc: "Daniel C. Sobral" <dcs@newsguy.com>, Sheldon Hearn <axl@iafrica.com>, Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@critter.freebsd.dk>, Mikhail Teterin <mi@kot.ne.mediaone.net>, FreeBSD Chat <chat@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: English style (was: btokup().. patch to STYLE(9) (fwd)) Message-ID: <19990130144416.Q8473@freebie.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <36B2856E.FE4B1383@uk.radan.com>; from Mark Ovens on Sat, Jan 30, 1999 at 04:07:10AM %2B0000 References: <90073.917600532@axl.noc.iafrica.com> <36B1CABD.BCC90EC7@newsguy.com> <19990130101911.V8473@freebie.lemis.com> <36B27388.E1E1D99A@uk.radan.com> <19990130133214.J8473@freebie.lemis.com> <36B2856E.FE4B1383@uk.radan.com>
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On Saturday, 30 January 1999 at 4:07:10 +0000, Mark Ovens wrote: > Greg Lehey wrote: >> On Saturday, 30 January 1999 at 2:50:48 +0000, Mark Ovens wrote: >>> Greg Lehey wrote: >>>> [moved to chat] >>>> >>>> On Friday, 29 January 1999 at 23:50:37 +0900, Daniel C. Sobral wrote: >>>>> Sheldon Hearn wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>> I didn't have a problem reading the sentence, even though you left out >>>>>> required commas. The only thing that caused a problem was your use of >>>>>> split infinitive. ;-) >>>>> >>>>> Split infinitive is a urban legend. It has *never* been outlawed in >>>>> the english language, except for some crazy people in this century >>>>> and, I think, later last century. >>>> >>> >>> Not according to the OED. It is only in the most recent edition that the >>> split infinitive is officially recognized as grammatically correct. >>> >>> The classic example is Star Trek; "To boldly go.....", until now it >>> should have been "Boldly to go...", or "To go boldly....". >>> >>> Still, what the hell. We all speak American nowadays anyway ;-) >> >>> From an authority that the Americans are more likely to accept, I >> quote the Chicago Manual of Style, 14th Edition, section 2.98 >> (footnote): >> > > "...that the Americans are more likely to accept..."?. I thought we were > talking about English?. In English, a statement doesn't end with a question mark. But to quote you: >>> Still, what the hell. We all speak American nowadays anyway ;-) >> The thirteenth edition of this manual included split infinitives >> among the examples of ``errors and infelicities'' but tempered the >> inclusion by adding, in parentheses, that they are ``debatable >> `error' ''. The term has been dropped from the fourteenth edition >> because the Press now regards the intelligent and discriminating use >> of the construction as a legitimate form of expression and nothing >> writers or editors need feel uneasy about. Indeed, it seems to us >> that in many cases clarity ad naturalness of expression are best >> served by a judicious splitting of infinitives. > > The official definition of the English language is the OED, so to > quote an obviously American journal on a point of English grammar is > inappropriate. It's not a journal, it's the definitive style guide for the US. > American-English and Australian-English are both derivatives of > English (I object to the term "British-English"). If Americans have > considered the split infinitive grammatically correct for many years > then that is up to them, but in _English_ it has only recently > become accepted as grammatically correct. What I quoted indicates that the situation is similar in the USA. The thirteenth edition was published in 1982, the fourteenth in 1993. Greg -- See complete headers for address, home page and phone numbers finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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