Re: Trackers Second Review Response
From: Zarggg (zarggg_at_zarggg.net)
Date: 10/05/03
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Date: Sun, 05 Oct 2003 04:02:42 GMT
Phil Weldon wrote on 02 Oct 03 17:53:
> Don't give up! You are correct! Even the OED and The New Fowler's
> Modern English Usage (3rd. Ed.) support you! There is no Academe
> Francaise for English! And does one (attempt to split, attempt to
> properly split) an infinitive in English in the absence of two parts
> for the splitting? Is 'to' part of the infinitive structure in
> English? I think not! For example: "She helped him to understand
> the lesson" and "She helped him understand the lesson" are contain
> the same infinitive form, but one explicitly contains "to" and the
> other not. What does 'better' split in "She helped him better
> understand the lesson"? Is changing the sentence to "She helped him
> to better understand the lesson." or to "She helped him better to
> understand the lesson." either a contribution to the language? What
> is appropriate for Latin, with its rigid grammar and syntax, is
> merely arrant arid pedantry when applied to English; a feudal tail of
> recived English in the southern counties of Edwardian England .
> After all, a Latin infinitive CAN'T be split, being a single word.
Um... in English, the infinitive form _is_ "to <verb>". Of course,
English has changed so much that omitting the word "to" in infinitive
forms is now acceptable. The (most) grammatically proper form of your
example sentence is "She helped him to understand the lesson". Oh, and
there _are_ organizations who decide on rules on the proper usage of
(American) English; the Modern Language Association (MLA) is one such
organization.
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