Active Ink Slinger
Do you avoid split infinitives or is that going OTT grammatically?
Join the best erotica focused adult social network now
Login
To boldly go
Sometimes it just sounds "right", doesn't it. The Star Trek prologue, where your thread title comes from, is a good example. "To boldly go where no man has gone before" just seems more powerful than "to go boldly ...". Not something to be used casually or lightly, though. It is something you do for effect rather than as a matter of course and likely more suitable in poetry (which is basically what the ST prologue is) than prose.
Orgasm Aficionado
John Ayto at the OED calls the split infinitive: an entirely factitious solecism which has been so consistently and energetically condemned by self-appointed guardians of English grammar that generations of speakers and especially writers have been terrorized into avoiding it.
You have to really watch out for those grammarians.
You have to really watch out for those grammarians.
God Empress of Lush
Perhaps one of the Mods could advise us as to what the "Lush Style Guide" says on the matter?
I'm sure it is even more reliably authoritative than that of "The Times".
I'm sure it is even more reliably authoritative than that of "The Times".
Why not join my popular Lush Group One Tit Out Group | Lush Stories? For all those who enjoy pictures of women showing just one boob. Lots of cheeky flashes and accidental slips. Come on, you know you want to! Annie xxx
Active Ink Slinger
Quote by AbigailThornton
John Ayto at the OED calls the split infinitive: an entirely factitious solecism which has been so consistently and energetically condemned by self-appointed guardians of English grammar that generations of speakers and especially writers have been terrorized into avoiding it.
You have to really watch out for those grammarians.
"Factitious solecism" well that had me running for the OED. Lol.
It did get me wondering who decided the rules of grammar and are they fixed or evolving like the language?
For myself I must be "old school rebel", I will split infinitives in speech but otherwise not.
Gingerbread Lover
I see nothing wrong with split infinitives, if it's used well for emphasis or impact. 
Ut incepit fidelis, sic permanet.
*** 
********************************CLICK THE BANNERS TO BUY THESE WILLY-STIFFENING BOOKS!********************************
*** ********************************CLICK THE BANNERS TO BUY THESE WILLY-STIFFENING BOOKS!********************************
Quote by dpw
It did get me wondering who decided the rules of grammar and are they fixed or evolving like the language?
Alas, the latter. Would that English was as neat and regimented as Latin or even some of the Romance languages, but it is not so. Between our habit of grabbing vocabulary from other languages and the general evolution of the language as writers tinker with it, English tends to evolve almost organically in spite of the best efforts of dictionaries and grammarians to try to pin it down. And that's even before you get into the myriad dialects.
Active Ink Slinger
Quote by seeker4
Alas, the latter. Would that English was as neat and regimented as Latin or even some of the Romance languages, but it is not so. Between our habit of grabbing vocabulary from other languages and the general evolution of the language as writers tinker with it, English tends to evolve almost organically in spite of the best efforts of dictionaries and grammarians to try to pin it down. And that's even before you get into the myriad dialects.
Your post made me chuckle because I love the word "myriad", I nearly used it today in a different thread. It's almost poetic and much underused.
That's by the by, I know that the language evolves but do the rules of grammar? Who decides such things? Is there an all powerful court of grammatical titans that make the decisions? If so, is there the right of appeal?
It smacks of Orwell's 1984, grammar's Big Brother is watching!
Quote by dpw
Your post made me chuckle because I love the word "myriad", I nearly used it today in a different thread. It's almost poetic and much underused.
That's by the by, I know that the language evolves but do the rules of grammar? Who decides such things? Is there an all powerful court of grammatical titans that make the decisions? If so, is there the right of appeal?
It smacks of Orwell's 1984, grammar's Big Brother is watching!
Grammar evolves, too, though much more slowly. In English, at least, there is no central, official authority. The language simply evolves through usage and when enough people start doing something a certain way, grammar books get updated. As I say, rather organically. At least that's how it looks to me from the reading I've done.