Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 13:32:14 +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: <19990130133214.J8473@freebie.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <36B27388.E1E1D99A@uk.radan.com>; from Mark Ovens on Sat, Jan 30, 1999 at 02:50:48AM %2B0000 References: <90073.917600532@axl.noc.iafrica.com> <36B1CABD.BCC90EC7@newsguy.com> <19990130101911.V8473@freebie.lemis.com> <36B27388.E1E1D99A@uk.radan.com>
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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): 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. 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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