[Gllug] Monthly GLLUG grammar report (Seriously OT now!)

[John Winters]

On Tue, 2002-11-26 at 13:13, Dylan wrote:
> On Tuesday 26 November 2002 02:26, Jonathan Harker wrote:
> > On Tuesday 26 Nov 2002 12:53 pm, Bruce Richardson wrote:
> > > If you're determined to be pedantic, then an apostrophe is allowed in
> > > the plural of acronyms and abbreviations.
> >
> > Fine.
> >
> > Of course, don't get me started on whose/who's or who/whom
> >
> > Or split infinitives - Star Trek's "To boldly go" has caused much wailing
> > and gnashing of teeth ever since.
> 
> THERE IS NO REASON TO NOT SPLIT AN "INFINITIVE".

Except that it can make your sentence mean something different from what
you meant it to mean.  For instance, I suspect the meaning that you
meant to convey there was, "There is no reason to avoid splitting an
infinitive", but the sentence as written means something else.

Splitting an infinitive is one of those oddities.  It can be very
clumsy.  Equally an attempt to avoid it at short range (after the
sentence has already been half formed) can be equally clumsy.  The
tidiest solution is usually to avoid the problem arising.

As a parallel, the language seems to be reaching the point where "they"
is acceptable as a singular pronoun for an individual of unknown sex. 
OTOH, it will still grate with some people and can usually be avoided
tidily simply by re-arranging the sentence.

I was listening to a journalist the other evening who was devoted to
using "they" in this way - even when it was pointless.  "When the
expectant mother is ready, they are taken downstairs to the delivery
room."  It's just clumsy.

John

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