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Why is The Split Infinitive Wrong? (Counterarguments)
Just as the prohibition against the split infinitive was becoming part
of popular culture, there was a reaction against it among leading writers
and grammarians. For example, in the 1907 edition of The King's English,
the Fowler brothers wrote:
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“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.”
The reaction against this “superstition” was based on grammatical,
historical, and stylistic considerations. Grammatically, the prohibition of
split infinitives was thought to be a nonsensical application of Latin grammar
to a Germanic language. There are good grounds for arguing that to is
not part of the infinitive in English. Neither its German cognate zu,
nor its Dutch cognate te is considered part of the infinitive in their
respective languages, although many sentences use them the same way as English
uses to. And while German and Dutch never allow an adverbial to fall between
the preposition and the infinitive, Swedish does.
Stylistically, the careful placement of another word between to and the bare
infinitive sometimes avoids ambiguity or ugliness. The old prohibition on split
infinitives is particularly surprising when one observes that there are a number of
expressions in English that are weakened considerably by avoiding the split infinitive.
The phrase “I plan to really enjoy the party” is perceived by native
speakers as far more natural and rhythmic than possible non-split infinitive alternatives
such as “I plan really to enjoy the party” and “I plan to enjoy
really the party”, both of which are perceived as artificial. The only other
alternative, “I plan to enjoy the party, really” actually possesses a slightly
different meaning — putting the “really” on the end here shifts the meaning
of the sentence to imply that the speaker is protesting against some previous suggestion
that the speaker would somehow not enjoy the party. (The otherwise perfectly acceptable
variation “I really plan to enjoy the party” is not relevant to this particular
discussion, as the adverb here modifies the verb plan rather than enjoy.)
There was frequent skirmishing between the splitters and anti-splitters up until the
1960s. George Bernard Shaw wrote letters to newspapers supporting writers who used
the split infinitive, and Raymond Chandler complained to his publisher about a
proofreader who changed Chandler's split infinitives.
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