Re: Bostonites. *ZAP*

Brian Betty wrote:
> Splitting infinitives is a rule that never existed in English. It was
> invented by a bunch of Latinophiles and Francophiles who neglected to pay
> attention to the fact that 1. English is not a Romance language and 2. in
> French and Latin, you cannot split infinitives because they are a single
> word, as in Old English (the suffix -an: aksan 'to ask'). As soon as the
> new infinitive form in English was invented, infinitives were split.
It's still not possible to split infinitives in English.  "to" isn't
part of the infinitive, if it was, we'd have to say things like "I will
to go" or "He can to swim".  "To" is merely a preposition that can
precede the infinitive.  In English, it's the ONLY preposition allowed
before an infinitive, which makes it LOOK like part of the infinitive.

--
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was hanged." - Irish proverb
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