Avoiding Split Infinitives
Writers who avoid splitting infinitives either place the splitting element elsewhere in the sentence (as noted in the 1834 proscription) or reformulate the sentence, perhaps rephrasing it without an infinitive and thus avoiding the issue. Considering that many English speakers throughout history have not known the construction, or have known it only passively, there can be no situation in which it is a necessary part of natural speech. However, a sentence with a split infinitive such as "to more than double" must be completely rewritten; it is ungrammatical to put the words "more than" anywhere else in the sentence. 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:
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 remodelled instead of having a word lifted from its original place & dumped elsewhere:...
In some cases, moving the adverbial creates an ungrammatical sentence or changes the meaning. R.L. Trask uses this example:
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- She decided to gradually get rid of the teddy bears she had collected.
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- "Gradually" splits the infinitive "to get". However, if the adverb were moved, where could it go?
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- She decided gradually to get rid of the teddy bears she had collected.
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- This might imply that the decision was gradual.
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- She decided to get rid of the teddy bears she had collected gradually.
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- This implies that the collecting process was gradual.
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- She decided to get gradually rid of the teddy bears she had collected.
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- This sounds awkward, as it splits the phrase "get rid of".
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- She decided to get rid gradually of the teddy bears she had collected.
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- This is almost as unwieldy as its immediate predecessor.
The sentence can be rewritten to maintain its meaning, however, by using a noun or a different grammatical aspect of the verb, or by eschewing the informal "get rid":
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- She decided to get rid of her teddy bear collection gradually.
- 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.
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Famous quotes containing the words avoiding and/or split:
“There is all the difference in the world between the criminal’s avoiding the public eye and the civil disobedient’s taking the law into his own hands in open defiance. This distinction between an open violation of the law, performed in public, and a clandestine one is so glaringly obvious that it can be neglected only by prejudice or ill will.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)
“O, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious, periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb shows and noise. I would have such a fellow whipped for o’erdoing Termagant. It out-Herods Herod. Pray you avoid it.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)