Editing Split infinitive

{{short description|English grammatical construction}}
<!--Please do not add gratuitous split infinitives to this article.-->
A '''split infinitive''' is a [[grammatical construction]] specific to English in which an [[adverb]] or [[adverbial phrase]] separates the "to" and "[[infinitive]]" [[Constituent (linguistics)|constituents]] of what was traditionally called the "full infinitive", but is more commonly known in modern [[linguistics]] as the to-infinitive (e.g., ''to go'').

In the history of English language aesthetics, the split infinitive was often deprecated, despite its prevalence in [[Colloquialism|colloquial speech]]. The [[Title sequence|opening sequence]] of the ''[[Star Trek]]'' television series contains a well-known example, "[[Where no man has gone before|'''to ''boldly'' go''' where no man has gone before]]", wherein the adverb ''boldly'' was said to split the full infinitive, ''to go''. 
Multiple words may split a to-infinitive, such as: "The population is expected '''to ''more than'' double''' in the next ten years."

In the 19th century, some [[linguistic prescriptivists]] sought to forever disallow the split infinitive, and the resulting conflict had considerable cultural importance. The construction still renders disagreement, but modern English usage guides have largely dropped the objection to it.<ref name=Walsh112>{{cite book|last=Walsh|first=Bill|author-link=Bill Walsh (author)|title=Lapsing into a comma: a curmudgeon's guide to the many things that can go wrong in print—and how to avoid them|location=Lincolnwood, Illinois|editor=Contemporary Books|year=2000|pages=[https://archive.org/details/lapsingintocomma00wals/page/112 112–113]|isbn=0-8092-2535-2|publisher=Contemporary Books|url=https://archive.org/details/lapsingintocomma00wals/page/112}}</ref>

The ''split infinitive'' terminology is not widely used in modern linguistics. Some linguists question whether a to-infinitive phrase can meaningfully be called a "full infinitive" and, consequently, whether an infinitive can be "split" at all.

== History of the construction ==
=== Old and Middle English ===
In [[Old English]], infinitives were single words ending in ''-n'' or ''-an'' (comparable to modern [[Dutch language|Dutch]] and [[German language|German]] ''-n'', ''-en''). [[Gerund]]s were formed using ''to'' followed by a verbal noun in the [[dative case]], which ended in ''-anne'' or ''-enne'' (e.g., ''tō cumenne'' = "coming, to come").<ref name=Bryant>{{cite journal | last = Bryant |first = M. M. | title = The Split Infinitive | journal = College English | volume = 8 | issue = 1 |date=October 1946|pages = 39–40 | doi = 10.2307/370450 | publisher = National Council of Teachers of English | jstor = 370450}}</ref> In [[Middle English]], the bare infinitive and the gerund coalesced into the same form ending in ''-(e)n'' (e.g., ''comen'' "come"; ''to comen'' "to come"). The "to" infinitive was not split in Old or Early Middle English.

The first known example of a split infinitive in English, in which a pronoun rather than an adverb splits the infinitive, is in [[Layamon]]'s ''[[Brut (Layamon)|Brut]]'' (early 13th century):

:''and he cleopede him to; alle his wise cnihtes.''
:'''''for to him reade''''';<ref name="Brook1963">{{cite book |editor1-last=Brook |editor1-first=G. L. |editor2-last=Leslie |editor2-first=R. F. |author=Layamon |title=British Museum Ms. Cotton Caligula A. IX and British Museum Ms. Cotton Otho C. XIII |publisher=Oxford University Press | date=1993 |orig-year=Published in print 1963-1978 for the [[Early English Text Society]] by the Oxford University Press, original author Layamon, {{fl.|1200}}<!--|page=287 -->at=Line 5221 |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/LayOtho?rgn=main;view=fulltext |access-date=2018-06-20 }}</ref><ref name=Nagle>Nagle (1994). Nagle takes his historical data from {{cite book | last = Visser | first = F. T. | orig-year=1973|year = 1997 | title = An Historical Syntax of the English Language | location = Leiden | publisher = Brill | isbn = 90-04-03273-8}}</ref>
::And he called to him all his wise knights / to him advise.

This may be a poetic inversion for the sake of meter, and therefore says little about whether Layamon would have felt the construction to be syntactically natural. However, no such reservation applies to the following prose example from [[John Wycliffe]] (14th century), who often split infinitives:<ref>{{cite book | last = Partridge | first = Astley Cooper | year = 1969 | title = Tudor to Augustan English: A Study in Syntax and Style from Caxton to Johnson | publisher = Deutsch | page = 214 | isbn = 9780233960920 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=wgIrAAAAIAAJ&q=%22split+infinitive%22 | access-date = 2013-03-03}}</ref>
:''For this was gret unkyndenesse, '''to this manere treten''' there brother.''<ref name="Hall1882">Quoted by {{cite journal | last = Hall |first = Fitzedward | title = On the Separation, by a Word or Words, of to and the Infinitive Mood | journal = American Journal of Philology | volume = 3 | issue = 9 | year = 1882|pages = 17–24 | doi = 10.2307/287307 | publisher = The Johns Hopkins University Press | jstor = 287307}}; [[William Strunk Jr.|Strunk, William]] & [[E. B. White|White, E.B.]], ''[[The Elements of Style]]'', fourth edition, Longman, 2000, p. 58, also speak of 14th-century examples.</ref>
::For this was great unkindness, to in this manner treat their brother.

=== Modern English ===
After its rise in [[Middle English]], the construction became rare in the 15th and 16th centuries.<ref name=Nagle/> [[William Shakespeare]] used it at least once.<ref name="Vizetelly1915">{{cite book | last = Vizetelly | first = Frank | year = 1915 | title = Essentials of English Speech and Literature | publisher = Read Books | page = 156 | isbn = 1-4086-6266-3 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=zD4jeNDmNXYC&pg=PA156 | access-date = 2010-01-04}}</ref><ref>Some have suggested that another sentence in Shakespeare, from ''Coriolanus'', Act I, scene 2, contains a split infinitive: "Whatever hath been thought on in this state, / That could be brought to bodily act, ere Rome / Had circumvention?" [https://books.google.com/books?id=7vkxAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA50], [https://books.google.com/books?id=KC1XAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA720-IA2] Others say that "bodily" here is an adjective and "act" is a noun, as Vizetelly and [https://books.google.com/books?id=eOBRurBikwQC&dq=%22brought+to+bodily+act%22+%22real%2C+actual%22&pg=PA130 Johnson's Dictionary] do.</ref> The uncontroversial example appears to be a syntactical inversion for the sake of meter:<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Semerjyan|first=Maria|title=The Split Infinitive in Modern English|url=https://www.academia.edu/28206300|journal=[[Academia.edu]]|language=en}}</ref>
:''Root pity in thy heart, that when it grows''
:''Thy pity may deserve '''to pitied be''''' ([[Sonnet 142]]).
[[Edmund Spenser]], [[John Dryden]], [[Alexander Pope]], and the [[King James Version of the Bible]] used none, and they are very rare in the writing of [[Samuel Johnson]]. [[John Donne]] used them several times, though, and [[Samuel Pepys]] also used at least one.<ref name=AHBEU>{{cite book| year = 1996 | title = The American Heritage Book of English Usage: A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English | publisher = Houghton Mifflin | pages = 34–35 | isbn = 0-395-76786-5 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=BEHFyMCdwssC&q=American+Heritage+Book+of+English+Usage | access-date = 2009-07-29}}</ref><ref name=Hall>Hall (1882)</ref> No reason for the near disappearance of the split infinitive is known; in particular, no prohibition is recorded.<ref name=Nagle/>

Split infinitives reappeared in the 18th century and became more common in the 19th.<ref name=MWDEU>{{cite book | author = Merriam-Webster, Inc. | year = 1994 | title = Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage | pages = 867–868 | isbn = 0-87779-132-5 | url = https://archive.org/details/merriamwebstersd00merr/page/867 | url-access = registration | access-date = 2009-11-12 | publisher = Merriam-Webster}}</ref>
[[Daniel Defoe]], [[Benjamin Franklin]], [[William Wordsworth]], [[Abraham Lincoln]], [[George Eliot]], [[Henry James]], and [[Willa Cather]] are among the writers who used them. Examples in the poems of [[Robert Burns]] attest its presence also in 18th-century Scots:
:''Who dared '''to nobly stem''' tyrannic pride.'' ("The Cottar's Saturday Night")

In colloquial speech, the construction came to enjoy widespread use. Today, according to the ''American Heritage Book of English Usage'', "people split infinitives all the time without giving it a thought."<ref name=AHBEU/> In corpora of contemporary spoken English, some adverbs such as ''always'' and ''completely'' appear more often in the split position than the unsplit.<ref name=EvG>{{cite book | last = Van Gelderen | first = Elly | year = 2004 | title = Grammaticalization as Economy | publisher = John Benjamins | pages = 245–246 | isbn = 90-272-2795-0 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=e7yG6WSuwi8C&pg=PA246| access-date = 2010-10-31}} [http://www.public.asu.edu/~gelderen/TO-''not''.doc .doc version]</ref>

=== Theories of origins ===
Although it is difficult to say why the construction developed in Middle English, or why it revived so powerfully in Modern English, a number of theories have been postulated.

==== Analogy ====
Traditional grammarians have suggested that the construction appeared because people frequently place adverbs before finite verbs. [[George Oliver Curme|George Curme]] writes: "If the adverb should immediately precede the finite verb, we feel that it should immediately precede also the infinitive…"<ref name="Curme1927">{{cite journal | last = Curme | first = George | author-link = George Oliver Curme | title = The Split Infinitive | journal = American Speech | volume = 2 | issue = 8 |date=May 1927|pages = 341–342 | doi = 10.2307/452976 | publisher = Duke University Press | jstor = 452976}}</ref> Thus, if one says:
:''She gradually '''got''' rid of her stutter.'' and
:''She '''will''' gradually '''get''' rid of her stutter.''
one may, by analogy, wish to say:
:''She'' wants '''''to''' gradually '''get''' rid of her stutter.''
This is supported by the fact that split infinitives are often used as echoes, as in the following exchange, in which the riposte parodies the slightly odd collocation in the original sentence:
:Child: ''I accidentally forgot to feed the hamster.''
:Parent: ''Well, you'll have to try harder not'' to "accidentally forget", ''won't you?''
This is an example of an adverb being transferred into split infinitive position from a parallel position in a different construction.

==== Transformational grammar ====
[[Transformational grammar]]ians have attributed the construction to a re-analysis of the role of ''to''.<ref name=Nagle/>

=== Types ===
In the modern language, splitting usually involves a single adverb coming between the verb and its marker. Very frequently, this is an emphatic adverb, for example:
:''I need you all '''to really pull''' your weight.''
:''I'm '''gonna (going to) totally pulverise''' him.''

Sometimes it is a negation, as in the self-referential joke:

:''Writers should learn '''to not split''' infinitives''.

However, in modern colloquial English, almost any adverb may be found in this syntactic position, especially when the adverb and the verb form a close syntactic unit (really-pull, not-split).

Compound split infinitives, i.e., infinitives split by more than one word, usually involve a pair of adverbs or a multi-word adverbial:
:''We are determined '''to completely and utterly eradicate''' the disease''.
:''He is thought '''to almost never have''' made such a gesture before''.
:''This is a great opportunity '''to once again communicate''' our basic message''.

Examples of non-adverbial elements participating in the split-infinitive construction seem rarer in Modern English than in Middle English. The pronoun ''all'' commonly appears in this position:
:''It was their nature '''to all hurt''' one another''.<ref name="Burchfield1996">Quoted from P. Carey (1981) in {{cite book | last1 = Burchfield | first1 = R. W. | last2 = Fowler | first2 = H. W. | year = 1996 | title = The New Fowler's Modern English Usage | publisher = Oxford University Press | page = [https://archive.org/details/newfowlersmodern00fowl/page/738 738] | isbn = 0-19-869126-2 | url = https://archive.org/details/newfowlersmodern00fowl/page/738 }}</ref>
and may even be combined with an adverb:
:''I need you '''to all really pull''' your weight.''
However an object pronoun, as in the [[#Old and Middle English|Layamon example]] above, would be unusual in modern English, perhaps because this might cause a listener to misunderstand the ''to'' as a preposition:
: *''And he called to him all his wise knights '''to him advise'''''.

While, structurally, acceptable as poetic formulation, this would result in a [[garden path sentence]], particularly evident if the indirect object is omitted:

{| class="wikitable" bgcolor="white"
|-
!Sentence
!Initial likely partial parse
!Final parse
|-
|*''And he called all his wise knights '''to him advise'''''.
|And he called all his knights to come to him...
|And he called all his knights, so that they might advise him
|}

Other parts of speech would be very unusual in this position. However, in verse, poetic inversion for the sake of meter or of bringing a rhyme word to the end of a line often results in abnormal syntax, as with Shakespeare's split infinitive (''to pitied be'', cited above), in fact an inverted passive construction in which the infinitive is split by a [[past participle]]. Presumably, this would not have occurred in a prose text by the same author.

When multiple infinitives are linked by a conjunction, the particle ''to'' tends to be used only once at the beginning of the sequence: ''to eat, drink, and be merry''. In this case, the conjunction and any other words that fall between the ''to'' and the final infinitive have seldom been deemed to create a split infinitive, and almost always have been considered uncontroversial. Examples include "We pray you '''to proceed&nbsp;/ And justly and religiously unfold'''..." (Shakespeare, ''Henry V'', Act II, scene 9) and "...she is determined '''to be independent, and not live''' with aunt Pullet" ([[George Eliot]], ''[[The Mill on the Floss]]'', volume VI, chapter I).<ref>{{cite book | last = Visser |first = F. Th. | title = An Historical Syntax of the English Language, Part 2: Syntactical Units with One Verb | volume = 2 | year = 1966 | publisher = Brill | pages = 1039 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ObA3AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1039 | access-date = 2018-09-10}}</ref>

== History of the term ==
It was not until the very end of the 19th century that terminology emerged to describe the construction. The earliest use of the term ''split infinitive'' on record dates from 1890.<ref name=MWnotes>{{cite web | title = To Boldly Go: Star Trek & the Split Infinitive | work = Usage notes | publisher = Merriam-Webster.com | date = April 26, 2018 | url = https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/to-boldly-split-infinitives | access-date = 2018-04-26}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | journal = The Scots Observer | date = September 13, 1890| title = Reviews: A Novel in Journalese | volume = IV | number = 95 | page = 489 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=94oeAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA439 | access-date = 2018-04-27 | quotation = The split infinitive ('to solemnly curse') is a captain jewel in the carcanet [referring to 'gems' of a novel's grammar].}}</ref> The now rare ''cleft infinitive'' is almost as old, attested from 1893;<ref>''OED'' 1900; ''OEDS. A Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary''. 1972–86. Ed. R. W. Burchfield; ''Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary'', Eleventh Edition (2005–2006), "split infinitive".</ref> in the 1890s it was briefly the more common term but almost disappeared after 1905. "Splitting the infinitive" is slightly older, going back to 1887.<ref name=MWnotes/> According to the main [[Etymological dictionary|etymological dictionaries]], ''infinitive-splitting'' and ''infinitive-splitter'' followed in 1926 and 1927, respectively. The term ''compound split infinitive'', referring to a split infinitive with more than one word between the particle and the infinitive, is not found in these dictionaries and appears to be very recent.

This terminology implies analysing the full infinitive as a two-word infinitive, which not all grammarians accept. As one who used "infinitive" to mean the single-word verb, [[Otto Jespersen]] challenged the epithet: "'To' is no more an essential part of an infinitive than the definite article is an essential part of a [[nominative]], and no one would think of calling 'the good man' a split nominative."<ref name="Jespersen1956">{{cite book | last = Jespersen | first = Otto | year = 1956 | title = Growth and Structure of the English Language | page = 222 | publisher = Doubleday}}</ref> However, no alternative terminology has been proposed.

== History of the controversy ==
{{Blockquote
|text = No other grammatical issue has so divided English speakers since the split infinitive was declared to be a [[solecism]] in the 19c [19th century]: raise the subject of English usage in any conversation today and it is sure to be mentioned.
|author = [[Henry Watson Fowler]]
|source = [[Fowler's Modern English Usage|''Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage'']]<ref name=Fowler547>{{cite encyclopedia | editor = Robert Allen | encyclopedia = [[Fowler's Modern English Usage|Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage]] (1926) | title = Split infinitive | year = 2002 | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 0-19-860947-7 | page = [https://archive.org/details/pocketfowlersmod00alle/page/547 547] | url = https://archive.org/details/pocketfowlersmod00alle/page/547 }}</ref>}}

Although it is sometimes reported that a prohibition on split infinitives goes back to [[Renaissance]] times, and frequently the 18th century scholar [[Robert Lowth]] is cited as the originator of the prescriptive rule,<ref>Richard Lederer, ''A Man of My Words: Reflections on the English Language'', St. Martin's Press, 2003, {{ISBN|0-312-31785-9}}, p. 248: "The prohibition of that practice was created in 1762 by one Robert Lowth, an Anglican bishop and self-appointed grammarian." Similarly Peter Stockwell, ''Sociolinguistics: A Resource Book for Students'', Routledge, 2002, {{ISBN|0-415-23452-2}}, p. 98.</ref> such a rule is not to be found in Lowth's writing, and is not known to appear in any text before the 19th century.<ref name="BrownOgilvie2010p347">{{cite book|last1=Brown|first1=Keith|last2=Ogilvie|first2=Sarah|title=Concise Encyclopedia of Languages of the World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F2SRqDzB50wC&pg=PA347|year=2010|publisher=Elsevier|isbn=978-0-08-087775-4|page=347}}</ref><ref name="Hickey2010p81">{{cite book|last=Hickey|first=Raymond|title=Eighteenth-Century English: Ideology and Change|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B-PKlIqH6EMC&pg=PA81|year=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-48959-1|page=81}}</ref><ref name="OstadeWurff2009pp37-38">{{cite book|last1=Ostade|first1=Ingrid Tieken-Boon van|last2=Wurff|first2=Wim van der|title=Current Issues in Late Modern English|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x91EUnnWwR8C&pg=PA37|year=2009|publisher=Peter Lang|isbn=978-3-03911-660-7|pages=37–38}}</ref>

Possibly the earliest comment against split infinitives was by the American [[John Comly]] in 1803.<ref name=MWnotes/>

<blockquote>An adverb should not be placed between the verb of the infinitive mood and the preposition ''to'', which governs it; as ''Patiently'' to wait—not To ''patiently'' wait.</blockquote>

Another early prohibition came from an anonymous American in 1834:<ref name="BrownOgilvie2010p347" /><ref name="OstadeWurff2009pp37-38" /><ref name="Kamm2015">{{cite book|last=Kamm|first=Oliver|title=Accidence Will Happen: The Non-Pedantic Guide to English Usage|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mD8qAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT245|year=2015|publisher=Orion|isbn=978-0-297-87194-1|page=245}}</ref>

<blockquote>The practice of separating the prefix of the infinitive mode from the verb, by the intervention of an adverb, is not unfrequent among uneducated persons&nbsp;… I am not conscious, that any rule has been heretofore given in relation to this point&nbsp;… The practice, however, of not separating the particle from its verb, is so general and uniform among good authors, and the exceptions are so rare, that the rule which I am about to propose will, I believe, prove to be as accurate as most rules, and may be found beneficial to inexperienced writers. It is this :—''The particle, ''TO'', which comes before the verb in the infinitive mode, must not be separated from it by the intervention of an adverb or any other word or phrase; but the adverb should immediately precede the particle, or immediately follow the verb.''<ref name="Anon 1834">{{cite journal | author = P. | title= Inaccuracies of Diction. Grammar | pages = 467–470 | journal = [[The New-England Magazine]] | volume = 7 | issue = 6 |date=December 1834 | url = http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?root=%2Fmoa%2Fnwen%2Fnwen0007%2F&tif=00479.TIF&cite=http%3A%2F%2Fcdl.library.cornell.edu%2Fcgi-bin%2Fmoa%2Fmoa-cgi%3Fnotisid%3DABS8100-0007-131&coll=moa&frames=1&view=50 | access-date = 2006-10-26}}</ref></blockquote>

In 1840, Richard Taylor also condemned split infinitives as a "disagreeable affectation",<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Tooke | first1 = John Horne | last2= Taylor | first2= Richard | year = 1840 | title = The Diversions of Purley | location = London | publisher = Thomas Tegg | page = xxx | url = https://archive.org/details/epeapteroentaor01taylgoog | access-date = 2015-12-07 | quote=Some writers of the present day have the disagreeable affectation of putting an adverb between ''to'' and the infinitive.}}</ref> and in 1859, Solomon Barrett Jr., called them "a common fault."<ref>{{cite book | last=Barrett | first=Solomon Jr. | year = 1859 | title = Barrett's English Syntax | location = Boston | publisher = Bradley, Dayton, & Co. | page = 164 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=93sQAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA164 | access-date = 2011-09-16}}</ref> However, the issue seems not to have attracted wider public attention until [[Henry Alford (theologian)|Henry Alford]] addressed it in his ''Plea for the Queen's English'' in 1864:
<blockquote>A correspondent states as his own usage, and defends, the insertion of an adverb between the sign of the infinitive mood and the verb. He gives as an instance, "''to scientifically illustrate.''" But surely this is a practice entirely unknown to English speakers and writers. It seems to me, that we ever regard the ''to'' of the infinitive as inseparable from its verb. And, when we have already a choice between two forms of expression, "scientifically to illustrate" and "to illustrate scientifically," there seems no good reason for flying in the face of common usage.<ref name="Alford 1864">[https://archive.org/stream/pleaforqueenseng00alfouoft#page/188/mode/2up ''A Plea for the Queen's English: Stray notes on Speaking and Spelling''],  Henry Alford, Strahan, 1866, page 188</ref><ref>Quoted by Hall (1882).</ref></blockquote>

Others followed, among them Bache, 1869 ("The ''to'' of the infinitive mood is inseparable from the verb");<ref>{{cite book | last = Bache | first = Richard Meade | year = 1869 | title = Vulgarisms and Other Errors of Speech | location = Philadelphia | publisher = Claxton, Remsen, and Haffelfinger | page = [https://archive.org/details/vulgarismsother00bachgoog/page/n165 145] | url = https://archive.org/details/vulgarismsother00bachgoog | quote = Richard Meade Bache vulgarisms. | access-date = 2006-10-31 | edition = second}}</ref> William B. Hodgson, 1889; and Raub, 1897 ("The sign ''to'' must not be separated from the remaining part of the infinitive by an intervening word").<ref>{{cite book | last = Raub | first = Robert N. | year = 1897 | title = Helps in the Use of Good English | location = Philadelphia | page = [https://archive.org/details/helpsinusegoode01raubgoog/page/n126 120] | url = https://archive.org/details/helpsinusegoode01raubgoog | quote = Raub helps. | access-date = 2006-11-13 | publisher = Raub & Co.}}</ref>

Even as these authorities were condemning the split infinitive, others were endorsing it: Brown, 1851 (saying some grammarians had criticized it and it was less elegant than other adverb placements but sometimes clearer);<ref>{{cite book | last = Brown | first = Goold | author-link = Goold Brown | title = The Grammar of English Grammars | year = 1851 | location = New York | url = http://www.gutenberg.org/files/11615/11615-8.txt | access-date = 2006-11-13}}</ref> Hall, 1882; Onions, 1904; Jespersen, 1905; and Fowler and Fowler, 1906. Despite the defence by some grammarians, by the beginning of the 20th century the prohibition was firmly established in the press. In the 1907 edition of ''The King's English'', the [[Henry Watson Fowler|Fowler]] brothers wrote:

<blockquote>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.</blockquote>

In large parts of the school system, the construction was opposed with ruthless vigour. A correspondent to the [[BBC]] on a programme about English grammar in 1983 remarked:

<blockquote>One reason why the older generation feel so strongly about English grammar is that we were severely punished if we didn't obey the rules! One split infinitive, one whack; two split infinitives, two whacks; and so on.<ref>Quoted by David Crystal, ''The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language'', p. 91</ref></blockquote>

As a result, the debate took on a degree of passion that the bare facts of the matter never warranted.{{POV statement|date=October 2023}} There was frequent skirmishing between the splitters and anti-splitters until the 1960s. [[George Bernard Shaw]] wrote letters to newspapers supporting writers who used the split infinitive and [[Raymond Chandler]] complained to the editor of ''[[The Atlantic]]'' about a [[proofreading|proofreader]] who interfered with Chandler's split infinitives:

<blockquote>By the way, would you convey my compliments to the purist who reads your proofs and tell him or her that I write in a sort of broken-down patois which is something like the way a Swiss-waiter talks, and that when I split an infinitive, God damn it, I split it so it will remain split, and when I interrupt the velvety smoothness of my more or less literate syntax with a few sudden words of barroom vernacular, this is done with the eyes wide open and the mind relaxed and attentive. The method may not be perfect, but it is all I have.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Hiney | first1 = Tom | last2 = MacShane | first2 = Frank | year = 2000 | title = The Raymond Chandler Papers: Selected Letters and Nonfiction, 1909–1959 | location = New York | publisher = Atlantic Monthly Press | page = [https://archive.org/details/raymondchandlerp00raym/page/77 77] | isbn = 0-87113-786-0 | url = https://archive.org/details/raymondchandlerp00raym/page/77 }}</ref></blockquote>

Follett, in ''Modern American Usage'' (1966) writes: "The split infinitive has its place in good composition. It should be used when it is expressive and well led up to."<ref>Wilson Follett, ''Modern American Usage: A Guide'' (New York: Hill and Wang, 1966), 313.</ref> Fowler (Gowers' revised second edition, 1965) offers the following example of the consequences of refusal to split infinitives: "The greatest difficulty about assessing the economic achievements of the Soviet Union is that its spokesmen try ''absurdly to exaggerate'' them; in consequence the visitor may tend ''badly to underrate'' them" (italics added). This question results: "Has dread of the split infinitive led the writer to attach the adverbs ['absurdly' and 'badly'] to the wrong verbs, and would he not have done better ''to boldly split'' both infinitives, since he cannot put the adverbs after them without spoiling his rhythm" (italics added)?<ref>H. W. Fowler, ''Fowler's Modern English Usage'', 2nd ed., rev. and ed. by Sir Ernest Gowers (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1983), 582</ref> Bernstein (1985) argues that, although infinitives should not always be split, they should be split where doing so improves the sentence: "The natural position for a modifier is before the word it modifies. Thus the natural position for an adverb modifying an infinitive should be just&nbsp;… ''after'' the to" (italics added). Bernstein continues: "Curme's contention that the split infinitive is often an improvement&nbsp;… cannot be disputed."<ref>Theodore M. Bernstein, ''The Careful Writer'' (New York: Athenium, 1985), 424-27.</ref> Heffernan and Lincoln, in their modern English composition textbook, agree with the above authors. Some sentences, they write, "are weakened by&nbsp;… cumbersome splitting," but in other sentences "an infinitive may be split by a one-word modifier that would be awkward in any other position."<ref>James A. W. Heffernan and John E. Lincoln, ''Writing: A College Handbook—Annotated Instructor's Edition'', 4th ed., (New York: W. W. Norton, 1994), 284–285.</ref>

== Principal objections to the split infinitive ==
Objections to the split infinitive fall into three categories, of which only the first is accorded any credence by linguists.

=== The descriptivist objection ===
One of the earliest arguments against the split infinitive, expressed by an anonymous contributor to the ''New-England Magazine'' in 1834, was based on the impression that it was not an observable feature of English as used by "good authors."<ref name="Anon 1834"/>
[[Henry Alford (theologian)|Henry Alford]], in his ''Plea for the Queen's English'' in 1864 went further, stating that use of the "split infinitive" was "a practice entirely unknown to English speakers and writers."<ref name="Alford 1864"/>
In principle there is a consensus that language teachers should advise on usage on the basis of what is observed to be current practice in the language. If the early critics of the construction did not observe it to be usual in (the prestige variety of) English as they knew it, their advice was legitimate. However it would be difficult to argue that way today, as the split infinitive has become very common.

=== The argument from the full infinitive ===
A second argument is summed up by Alford's statement "It seems to me that we ever regard the ''to'' of the infinitive as inseparable from its verb."

The ''to'' in the infinitive construction, which is found throughout the Germanic languages, is originally a preposition before the dative of a verbal noun, but in the modern languages it is widely regarded as a particle that serves as a marker of the infinitive. In German and Dutch, this marker (''zu'' and ''te'' respectively) sometimes precedes the infinitive, but is not regarded as part of it. In English, on the other hand, it is traditional to speak of the "[[Infinitive#Uses of the bare infinitive|bare infinitive]]" without ''to'' and the "full infinitive" with it, and to conceive of ''to'' as part of the full infinitive. (In the sentence "I had my daughter clean her room," ''clean'' is a bare infinitive; in "I told my daughter to clean her room," ''to clean'' is a full infinitive.) Possibly this is because the absence of an ''inflected'' infinitive form made it useful to include the particle in the citation form of the verb, and in some nominal constructions in which other Germanic languages would omit it (e.g., ''to know her is to love her''). The concept of a two-word infinitive can reinforce an intuitive sense that the two words belong together. For instance, the rhetorician John Duncan Quackenbos said, "''To have'' is as much one thing, and as inseparable by modifiers, as the original form ''habban'', or the [[Latin]] ''habere''."<ref>{{cite book | last = Quackenbos | first = John Duncan | year = 1896 | url = https://archive.org/details/practicalrhetor00quacgoog | title = Practical Rhetoric | publisher = American Book Company | page = [https://archive.org/details/practicalrhetor00quacgoog/page/n228 222] }}</ref> The usage writer John Opdycke based a similar argument on the closest French, German, and Latin translations.<ref>{{cite book |last=Opdycke |first=John B. | title = Get it Right! A Cyclopedia of Correct English Usage | year = 1941 | publisher = Funk and Wagnalls | page = 174}}</ref>

However, the two-part infinitive is disputed, and some linguists argue that the infinitive in English is a single-word verb form, which may or may not be preceded by the particle ''to''. Some modern [[generative grammar|generative]] analysts classify ''to'' as a "peculiar" [[auxiliary verb]];<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sag |first1=Ivan A. |last2=Wasow |first2=Thomas |last3=Bender |first3=Emily M. | year = 2003 | title = Syntactic Theory: A Formal Introduction | publisher = Center for the Study of Language and Information | page = 361 | isbn = 1-57586-400-2}}</ref> other analysts, as the infinitival [[Subordination (linguistics)|subordinator]].<ref>{{cite book | last = Huddleston | first = Rodney | author-link = Rodney Huddleston | year = 2002 | title = The Cambridge Grammar of the English language | editor = Huddleston, Rodney |editor2=[[Geoffrey Pullum|Pullum, Geoffrey K.]] | chapter = Non-finite and verbless clauses | publisher = Cambridge University Press | pages = 1183–1187 | isbn = 978-0521431460 }}</ref>

Besides, even if the concept of the full infinitive is accepted, it does not necessarily follow that any two words that belong together grammatically need be adjacent to each other. They usually are, but counter-examples are easily found, such as an adverb splitting a two-word finite verb ("will not do", "has not done").

=== The argument from classical languages ===
A frequent argument of those who tolerate split infinitives is that the split-infinitive prohibition is based solely on a misguided comparison with [[Latin]].<ref name=Bailey>{{cite news
  | last = Bailey
  | first = Richard
  | title = Talking about words: Split Infinitives
  | work = Michigan Today News-e
  | publisher = [[University of Michigan]] News Service
  | date = June 2006
  | url =http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/html/2027.42/62004/words.html
  | access-date = 2006-11-29
}}</ref> However, the argument from the classical languages may be a [[straw man]] argument, as the most important critics of the split infinitive never used it. Although many writers who support the split infinitive suggest that this argument motivated the early opponents of the construction, there is little primary source evidence for this; indeed, Richard Bailey has noted that, despite the lack of evidence, this theory has simply become "part of the folklore of linguistics".

An infinitive in Latin or Greek is never used with a marker equivalent to English ''to'', and a Latin infinitive cannot be split. The argument would be that the construction should be avoided because it is not found in the classics. The claim that those who dislike split infinitives are applying rules of Latin grammar to English is asserted by many authorities who accept the split infinitive. One example is in the ''American Heritage Book of English Usage'': "The only rationale for condemning the construction is based on a false analogy with Latin."<ref name = AHBEU/> The assertion is also made in the ''Oxford Guide to Plain English'',<ref>{{cite book |title=Oxford Guide to Plain English|edition= Third|last= Cutts|first= Martin|year= 2009|publisher= Oxford University Press|location= Oxford|isbn= 978-0-19-955850-6|page=111}}</ref> ''Compact Oxford English Dictionary'',<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://languages.oup.com/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060417081625/http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/splitinfinitive?view=uk|url-status=dead|title=Oxford Languages &#124; The Home of Language Data|archive-date=April 17, 2006|website=languages.oup.com}}</ref> and [[Steven Pinker]]'s ''[[The Language Instinct]]'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/1994_01_24_thenewrepublic.html |title=Steven Pinker. Grammar Puss |publisher=Pinker.wjh.harvard.edu |date=1992-10-04 |access-date=2011-02-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140430100146/http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/1994_01_24_thenewrepublic.html |archive-date=2014-04-30 }}</ref> among others.<ref>{{cite book
  | last = Lyons
  | first = John L.
  | year = 1981
  | title = Language and Linguistics: An Introduction
  | publisher = Cambridge University Press
  | isbn = 0-521-23034-9
  | page = [https://archive.org/details/languagelinguist0000lyon/page/50 50]
  | url = https://archive.org/details/languagelinguist0000lyon
  | url-access = registration
  | access-date = 2007-01-16
}}</ref><ref>{{cite book
  | last = Hill
  | first = Alette Olin
  | year = 1997
  | chapter = Pronoun Envy
  | title = Counterbalance: Gendered Perspectives on Writing and Language
  | editor = Carolyn Logan
  | publisher = Broadview Press
  | isbn = 1-55111-127-6
  | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=SAY5idFoyS8C&pg=PA104
  | access-date = 2007-01-16
}}</ref><ref>{{cite book
  | last = Kroeger
  | first = Paul R.
  | year = 2004
  | title = Analyzing Syntax: A Lexical-Functional Approach
  | page = 4
  | publisher = Cambridge University Press
  | isbn = 0-521-81623-8
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ps1M-uXTrj4C&pg=PA4
  | access-date = 2007-01-16
}}</ref>

The argument implies an adherence to the humanist idea of the greater purity of the classics,<ref>{{cite book | last = Bryson | first = Bill | author-link = Bill Bryson | orig-year = 1990 |year=2001 | title = The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way | publisher = HarperCollins | isbn = 0-380-71543-0}}, p.137.</ref> which, particularly in Renaissance times, led people to regard as inferior aspects of English that differed from Latin. Today no linguist would accept an argument that judges the usage of one language by the grammar of another. Besides, if Latin has no equivalent of the marker ''to'', it provides no model for the question of where to put it, and therefore supports neither splitting nor not-splitting. As Richard Lederer puts it: "there is no precedent in these languages for condemning the split infinitive because in Greek and Latin (and all the other [[Romance verbs#Modern languages|Romance languages]]) the infinitive is a single word that is impossible to sever."<ref>{{cite book |last=Lederer  |first=Richard | title = A Man of My Words: Reflections on the English Language | publisher = St. Martin's Press | year = 2003 | page = [https://archive.org/details/manofmywordsrefl00lede/page/n265 248] | isbn = 0-312-31785-9 | url = https://archive.org/details/manofmywordsrefl00lede |url-access=registration  |quote=split infinitive Lowth.  | access-date = 2007-01-27}}</ref>

== Current views ==
{{Quote box
| quote  = "When I split an infinitive, God damn it, I split it so it will stay split."
| source = [[Raymond Chandler]], ''1947''.<ref>Jeremy Butterfield (2008). ''Damp Squid: The English Language Laid Bare''. Oxford University Press, Oxford. 978-0-19-923906. p. 136.</ref>
| width  = 27%
| align  = right
| style = padding:8px;
}}

Present [[Style manual|style and usage manuals]] deem simple split infinitives unobjectionable.<ref>"It is exceedingly difficult to find any authority who condemns the split infinitive—Theodore Bernstein, H. W. Fowler, Ernest Gowers, Eric Partridge, Rudolph Flesch, Wilson Follett, Roy H. Copperud, and others too tedious to enumerate here all agree that there is no logical reason not to split an infinitive."—Bryson (1990), p. 144.</ref> For example, [[George Oliver Curme|Curme]]'s ''Grammar of the English Language'' (1931) says that not only is the split infinitive correct, but it "should be furthered rather than censured, for it makes for clearer expression." ''The Columbia Guide to Standard American English'' notes that the split infinitive "eliminates all possibility of [[ambiguity]]," in contrast to the "potential for confusion" in an unsplit construction.<ref name=Columbia>{{cite book | last = Wilson | first = Kenneth G. | author-link = Kenneth G. Wilson (author) | year = 1993 | title = The Columbia Guide to Standard American English | publisher = Columbia University Press | isbn = 0-231-06989-8 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/columbiaguidetos00wils_0/page/410 410]–411 | url = https://archive.org/details/columbiaguidetos00wils_0 | url-access = registration | access-date = 2009-11-12}}</ref> ''[[Merriam–Webster's Dictionary of English Usage]]'' says: "the objection to the split infinitive has never had a rational basis."<ref name=MWDEU/> According to [[Mignon Fogarty]], "today almost everyone agrees that it is OK to split infinitives."<ref>{{cite book |title= The Ultimate Writing Guide for Students |author-link=Mignon Fogarty|last= Fogarty|first= Mignon|year= 2011|publisher= Henry Holt & Company|location= New York|isbn= 978-0805089448 |pages= 17–18}}</ref>

Nevertheless, many teachers of English still admonish students against using split infinitives in writing. Because the prohibition has become so widely known, the ''Columbia Guide'' recommends that writers "follow the conservative path [of avoiding split infinitives when they are not necessary], especially when you're uncertain of your readers' expectations and sensitivities in this matter."<ref name=Columbia/> Likewise, the Oxford dictionaries do not regard the split infinitive as ungrammatical, but on balance consider it likely to produce a weak style and advise against its use for formal correspondence.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutgrammar/splitinfinitives?view=uk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041025105319/http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutgrammar/splitinfinitives?view=uk |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 25, 2004 |title=Split infinitives : Oxford Dictionaries Online |publisher=Askoxford.com |access-date=2011-02-21}}</ref> [[R. W. Burchfield]]'s revision of Fowler's ''Modern English Usage'' goes farther (quoting Burchfield's own 1981 book ''The Spoken Word''): "Avoid splitting infinitives whenever possible, but do not suffer undue remorse if a split infinitive is unavoidable for the completion of a sentence already begun."<ref>{{cite book | last = Fowler | first = H. W. | title = The New Fowler's Modern English Usage | editor = Burchfield, R. W | year = 1996 | publisher = Clarendon Press | page = [https://archive.org/details/newfowlersmodern00fowl/page/738 738] | isbn = 0-19-869126-2 | url = https://archive.org/details/newfowlersmodern00fowl/page/738 }}</ref> Still more strongly, older editions of ''[[The Economist]]'' Style Guide said, "Happy the man who has never been told that it is wrong to split an infinitive: the ban is pointless. Unfortunately, to see it broken is so annoying to so many people that you should observe it" (but added "To never split an infinitive is quite easy.").<ref>{{cite book |page=70| title = The Economist Style Guide|edition=10th | publisher = Profile|last1=The Economist | year = 2012|isbn=978-1-84668-606-1| author1-link = The Economist}}</ref> This recommendation, however, is weakened in the 12th edition.<ref>{{Cite news | author = [[Robert Lane Greene]] (writing as "Johnson | url=https://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21741127-boldly-go-where-grammarians-have-feared-tread-ban-split-infinitives |title=The ban on split infinitives is an idea whose time never came | newspaper=The Economist |date=26 April 2018 |access-date=28 April 2018}}</ref> After stating that the ban is pointless, ''The Economist Style Guide'' now says "To see a split infinitive nevertheless annoys some readers, so try to avoid placing a modifier between "to" and the verb in an infinitive. But if moving the modifier would ruin the rhythm, change the meaning or even just put the emphasis in the wrong place, splitting the infinitive is the best option."<ref>{{cite book | title = The Economist Style Guide |edition=12th | publisher = Profile|last1=The Economist |last2= Wroe |first2=Ann |isbn=978-1-78283-348-2 |date=2018|at=split infinitives|author1-link=The Economist }}</ref>

As well as varying according to register, tolerance of split infinitives varies according to type. While most authorities accept split infinitives in general, it is not hard to construct an example that any native speaker would reject. Wycliff's Middle English compound split would, if transferred to modern English, be regarded by most people as un-English:
:''It was most unkind '''to in this manner treat''' their brother.''
Attempts to define the boundaries of normality are controversial. In 1996, the usage panel of ''The American Heritage Book'' was evenly divided for and against such sentences as,
:''I expect him '''to completely and utterly fail'''''
but more than three-quarters of the panel rejected
:''We are seeking a plan '''to gradually, systematically, and economically relieve''' the burden.''
Here the problem appears to be the breaking up of the verbal phrase ''to be seeking a plan to relieve'': a segment of the head verbal phrase is so far removed from the remainder that the listener or reader must expend greater effort to understand the sentence. By contrast, 87 percent of the panel deemed acceptable the multi-word adverbial in
:''We expect our output '''to more than double''' in a year''
not surprisingly perhaps, because here there is no other place to put the words ''more than'' without substantially recasting the sentence.

A special case is the splitting of an infinitive by the negation in sentences like
:''I soon learned '''to not provoke''' her.''
:''I want '''to not see''' you any more.''
Here traditional idiom, placing the negation before the marker (''I soon learned not to provoke her'') or with verbs of desire, negating the finite verb (''I don't want to see you anymore'') remains easy and natural, and is still overwhelmingly the more common construction. Some argue that the two forms have different meanings, while others see a grammatical difference,<ref name=EvG/> but most speakers do not make such a distinction.
In an example drawn from 3121 sampled usages by the [[British National Corpus]], the use of ''to not be'' (versus ''not to be'') is only 0.35%.{{citation needed|reason=no attestation|date=March 2022}}

== Avoiding split infinitives ==
Writers who avoid splitting infinitives either place the splitting element elsewhere in the sentence or reformulate the sentence, perhaps rephrasing it without an infinitive and thus avoiding the issue. However, a sentence such as "to more than double" must be completely rewritten to avoid the split infinitive; it is ungrammatical to put the words "more than" anywhere else in the sentence.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bartleby.com/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060619093847/http://www.bartleby.com/61/55/S0655500.html|url-status=dead|title=Homework Help and Textbook Solutions &#124; bartleby|archive-date=June 19, 2006|website=www.bartleby.com}}</ref> While split infinitives can be avoided, a writer must be careful not to produce an awkward or ambiguous sentence. Fowler (1926) stressed that, if a sentence is to be rewritten to remove a split infinitive, this must be done without compromising the language:

<blockquote>It is of no avail merely to fling oneself desperately out of temptation; one must so do it that no traces of the struggle remain; that is, sentences must be thoroughly remodeled instead of having a word lifted from its original place & dumped elsewhere&nbsp;…<ref name="Fowler 1926, p. 559">Fowler (1926), p. 559.</ref>
</blockquote>

In some cases, moving the adverbial creates an ungrammatical sentence or changes the meaning. [[Larry Trask|R.&nbsp;L. Trask]] uses this example:<ref name=Trask>{{cite book|last=Trask| first=R. L.| author-link=Larry Trask| title=Mind The Gaffe|year=2001|editor=Penguin Books|isbn=0-14-051476-7|pages=269–70|publisher=Penguin|location=London}}</ref>

:*''She decided to '''gradually''' get rid of the teddy bears she had collected.''

::"Gradually" splits the infinitive "to get." However, if the adverb were moved, where could it go?

:*''She decided '''gradually''' to get rid of the teddy bears she had collected.''

::This might imply that the decision was gradual.

:*''She decided to get rid of the teddy bears she had collected '''gradually.'''''

::This implies that the collecting process was gradual.

:*''She decided to get '''gradually''' rid of the teddy bears she had collected.''

::This sounds awkward, as it splits the phrase "get rid of."

:*''She decided to get rid '''gradually''' of the teddy bears she had collected.''

::Trask considers this almost as unwieldy as its immediate predecessor.

:*'''''Gradually,''' she decided to get rid of the teddy bears she had collected.''

::This might imply that her decision or the fact that she will get rid of her teddy bears is gradual.

The sentence can be rewritten to maintain its meaning, however, by using a noun or a different [[grammatical aspect]] of the verb, or by avoiding the informal "get rid":

:*''She decided to get rid of her teddy bear collection gradually.''<ref>With a slight change in meaning: she could have a teddy bear collection without having collected it herself, e.g., if she bought it in its entirety.</ref>
:*''She decided she would gradually get rid of the teddy bears she had collected.''
:*''She decided to rid herself gradually of the teddy bears she had collected.''

Fowler notes that the option of rewriting is always available but questions whether it is always worth the trouble.<ref name="Fowler 1926, p. 559"/>

== See also ==
* [[Common English usage misconceptions#Grammar|Common English usage misconceptions]]

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== References ==
* {{cite book | last = Fowler | first = H. W. | year = 1926 | title = Modern English Usage | url = https://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.920 | publisher = Clarendon Press }}
* {{cite journal | last = Hall |first = Fitzedward | title = On the Separation, by a Word or Words, of to and the Infinitive Mood | journal = American Journal of Philology | volume = 3 | issue = 9 | year = 1882|pages = 17–24 | doi = 10.2307/287307 | publisher = The Johns Hopkins University Press | jstor = 287307}}
* {{cite book | last = Nagle | first = Stephen| year = 1994 | title = Studies in Early Modern English | chapter = Infl <!--sic, it's a TG term--> in Early Modern English and the status of ''to'' | editor = Dieter Kastovsky | pages = 233–242 | location = Berlin; New York | publisher = Mouton de Gruyter | isbn = 3-11-014127-2 | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=25yCVi0AA4cC&q=Nagle+split+infinitive+infl&pg=PA234 | access-date = 2006-10-27}}

== Further reading ==
* [http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxspliti.html AUE: The alt.usage.english Home Page] FAQ entry on split infinitives.
* {{cite web  | last = Fogarty | first = Mignon | author-link = Mignon Fogarty | title = Split Infinitives  | work = Quick and Dirty Tips | publisher = Macmillan | date = 20 August 2010 | url = http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/split-infinitives.aspx | access-date = 5 April 2011}}
* [[Rodney Huddleston|Huddleston, Rodney D.]] and [[Geoffrey Pullum|Pullum, Geoffrey K.]] (2002). ''The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language'', [[Cambridge University Press]]. {{ISBN|0-521-43146-8}}. (''See especially pp.&nbsp;581–582.'')
* [http://www.bartleby.com/68/76/5676.html ''The Columbia Guide to Standard American English'']

== External links ==
{{Spoken Wikipedia|Split infinitive.ogg|date=2005-03-13}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Split Infinitive}}
[[Category:English usage controversies]]
[[Category:English grammar]]
[[Category:Word order]]