Miss Elaine Eos schrieb:
> In article <54lkrsF216qpuU1@mid.individual.net>,
> Einde O'Callaghan <einde.ocallaghan@planet-interkom.de> wrote:
>
>
>>In my opinion, complaints about split infinitives are the province of
>>pedants.
>
>
> Is not pedantic equivalent to academic or learned?
>
No. According to thze Merriam Webster dictionary "pedantic" means
"narrowly, stpodgily and often ostentatiously learned" or
"unimaginative, pedestrian". As for "pedant" there is an onbsolete
meaning "a male schooteacher" but the modern meaning is "a: one who
makes a show of knowledge b: one who is unimaginative or who unduly
emphasizes minutiae in the presentation or use of knowledge c: a
formalist or precisionist in teaching". These pejorative meanings are
the ones I intended.
> Your sentence sounds a bit like "In my opinion, complaints about sloppy
> English are the province of those concerned with correct English."
>
The rule about split infinitives has nothing to do with "correct
English". They have existed in "learned, educated" usage since the 14the
century, e.g. in Wycliffe. Only in the 19th century did some pedantic
grammarians see fit to complain about it - indeed the term the term
itself is quite late - according to the OED it dates from 1897.
Even the Fowler brothers, who are often cited as THE arbiter of correct
English usage, had the following to say: "The 'split' infinitive has
taken such hold upon the consciences of journalists that, instead of
warning the novice against splitting his infinitives, we must warn him
against the curious superstition that the splitting or not splitting
makes the difference between a good and a bad writer."
So not only do I think that the "rule" against splitting infinitives is
the result of pedantic hyper-correctness, it would seem that even the
doyens of the "prescriptivists" are of a similar opinion.
There are, of course, constructions where for reasons of style it might
be best to avoid "splitting the infinitive" but there are equally cases
where artificially avoiding a "split infinitive" can change the intended
meaning of the sentence.
Regards, Einde O'Callaghan
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