To unnecessarily split

It seems to be widely accepted among language mavens that there is no rule against splitting infinitives and that the contrary view, which many of us learned in school, is a "superstition" or a "fetish".

I hope to look at the distinction between grammatical rules and superstitions in another post. Meanwhile, why do I still not unnecessarily split infinitives?

I suggest that the clumsiness of the previous sentence gives a clue. Why do I still not split infinitives unnecessarily? sounds more natural, and — being less obtrusive — makes for better style.

But why does it sound more natural?

• Perhaps because it follows the much more general principle that words which belong together should be kept together. Subjects and objects should remain as close as practicable to their verbs; adjectives and adverbs should remain close to the words they modify; auxiliary verbs should stay close to their main verbs. Similarly, related ideas should be kept together (and presented in a logical order), rather than sprinkled around haphazardly. And the two component words of an English infinitive belong together almost as strongly as the inseparable syllables of the single-word equivalent in other languages.
  
  This is not to say that these pairs of words or phrases must always be adjacent. Often other considerations will over-ride that preference, as in Why do I still not split…. And that applies to split infinitives as it does to the other pairs.
  
  
• Or is it perhaps a matter of rhythm?

Comment menupadding Main menu