David W. Jones

#WritersCoffeeClub 4/10 What's something other writers swear by that you just don't get?

Never splitting infinitives in English. The rule came from Latin, where an infinitive is a single word. English infinitives are TWO words, and Latin lost all its prestige centuries ago!

Apr 11 at 9:13amFedilab
Show threadacb1d ago
@dancingtreefrog @cstross Surely never splitting infinitives is just something you would do to demonstrate to your fellow 18th-century English gentry that you went to a grammar school where you got Latin caned into you, and thus are of good breeding and not some jumped-up peasant
Show threadUnbro1d ago
@acb @dancingtreefrog @cstross <puts fingers in ears and goes la la la>
Show threadDavid W. Jones1d ago
@acb
As a German friend described everyone of European descent: We're all Eurotrash, a blend of wandering tribes a couple thousand years old. We predate the so-called "civilisations" of Greece and Rome and their hoity-toity Johnny-come-lately languages.
@cstross
Show threadGary McGraw1d ago
@acb @dancingtreefrog @cstross to boldly split where never split before
Show threadAMS1d ago
@acb @dancingtreefrog @cstross On the other hand, if Catullus had had access to split infinitives he would have split the fuck out of them. Or into them.
Show threadBrendan Halpin1d ago
@dancingtreefrog 100% but one exception (not clear why): I tell you "not to do something", not "to not do something"
Show threadDavid W. Jones1d ago
@bthalpin
Idiom, I think. But the people trying to graft Latin grammar onto English were very prescriptive ("You will do this") trying to uplift our beautiful street urchin of a language! 😁
Show threadRafe Culpin1d ago
@dancingtreefrog English is not a Romance language! It is a Germanic language with a Romance language bolted on top of it and bits of various other languages Blu tacked on all over.
Show threadDavid W. Jones1d ago

@RafeCulpin
English is the language that lurks in alleyways, mugs other languages, and riffles through their pockets looking for new words, grammar rules, and ways to spell things...

I do wish English had kept its full Germanic affection for compound words, though!

Show threadFLOWRI~1 aims to misbehave1d ago
@dancingtreefrog Scriptores eunt domus.
Show threadGabe1d ago
@dancingtreefrog ITYM "to never split infinitives in English" :)
Show threadEWR KSC1d ago

@dancingtreefrog
also I'm not convinced that the "to" is actually part of a Latin-style infinitive; it seems to behave more like an English preposition; as tho every verb that can sensibly take another verb as an object actually has a related phrasal verb: like to, want to, able to.

(cuz all learners of English agree, what the language needs is more phrasal verbs!)