Grammatical superstitions
I don't like to write about grammatical writing here because, as some of you have commented, I occasionally get the grammar wrong. That's why I like to rely on our experts to tackle grammatical questions. And I know from letters and e-mail I receive, readers love to spar over grammar.
Here's the latest note from our style guru, Jim Denery, to our copy editors, edited slightly for length:
"Never Split an Infinitive" ranks No. 2, actually "B," on the list of superstitions that Bryan A. Garner published in A Dictionary of Modern American Usage.
Garner makes his case for allowing split infinitives through this quote from Thomas R. Lounsbury in The Standard of Usage in English (1908): "The notion that it is a grammatical mistake to place a word between to and the simple form of a verb, as in to quietly walk away, is responsible for a great deal of bad writing by people who are trying to write well. Actually the rule against 'splitting an infinitive' contradicts the principles of English grammar and the practice of our best writers."
Garner then quotes Porter G. Perrin in Writer's Guide and Index to English: "There is no point in rearranging a sentence just to avoid splitting an infinitive unless it is an awkward one."
If you'd like a memorable example of effectively splitting an infinitive, let's boldly go to the words of noted grammarian James Tiberius Kirk: "Space...the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before...."
As editors, it's your call to decide if it applies, but let this be your guideline: Only avoid splitting an infinitive if it proves to be an awkward arrangement.
In all, Garner lists 11 superstitions (it's actually H.W. Fowler's term).
Because "Never End a Sentence with a Preposition" came out ahead of never splitting an infinitive, I thought I would offer some words of wisdom (obviously not mine) on that, as well.
"It is well to consider that a sentence ending with a preposition is sometimes clumsy, often weak," Theodore M. Bernstein writes in The Careful Writer.
But Bernstein also writes:
"Sometimes ... a preposition can itself provide strength at the end of a sentence. This occurs when the preposition carries the real import and the verb has a rather low charge; in such instances heavy stress -- perhaps the heaviest stress of the sentence -- falls on the preposition, and idiom demands that it appear at the end. Examples: 'He didn't know what he was getting into'; 'I found this tool but I don't know what it is for'; 'He didn't know what it was all about.'
"Instances like these are not usual, however. In most sentences ending with prepositions, the stress falls not on the preposition but on the word preceding it. And yet the sentences are still good. Why? Because they are idiomatic and have been constructed that way from Shakespeare's 'We are such stuff as dreams are made on' to today's 'Music to read by.' They are a natural manner of expression. Examine a handful: 'It's nothing to sneeze at'; 'Something to guard against'; 'You don't know what I've been through'; 'He is a man who can be counted on'; 'I'm not sure what the cake was made of.' Surely there is nothing amiss with these idiomatic constructions."
Then Bernstein summons Miss Thistlebottom, the mythical English teacher he blames for teaching schoolchildren so many of Fowler's "superstitions."
"Woe to Miss Thistlebottom if she tries to 'correct' them," Bernstein writes before launching into a phrase meant to summon Winston Churchill's words on prepositions at the end of sentences. "She won't have a leg on which to stand."
Again, as editors, it's your call, but be aware that sometimes a preposition at the end can make a sentence weak and sometimes it can make it strong. But it's only a rule of Miss Thistlebottom's; it's not English grammar.
Now I give you the rest of the superstitions:
* Never Split a Verb Phrase.
* Never Begin a Sentence with And or But.
* Never Write a One-Sentence Paragraph.
* Never Begin a Sentence with Because.
* Never Use since to Mean because.
* Never Use between with More Than Two Objects.
* Never Use the First-Person Pronouns I and me.
* Never Use Contractions.
* Never Use you in Referring to Your Reader.
I don't have the space to go into the rest of these right now, but know this: Sometimes these "superstitions" make sense, and sometimes they are rubbish. The key word in each of Garner's entries is never.
Comments (13)
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Can I add one more? Learn what its and it's mean. Learn how to use them. If you can say "it is," then use the apostrophe. When in doubt, leave it OUT.
Posted on July 13, 2005 11:44 AM
But since I sometimes have to quickly choose between correct grammar, style and time management, I hope you're still able to get where I'm coming from.
Posted on July 13, 2005 11:46 AM
I've lost my copy of Elements of Style. Does Strunk and White address this?
Posted on July 13, 2005 4:55 PM
hang tar nation guess usens who aint as egekated as youall folk seems to be aint gonna be lowd to rite on thesehear blogs no more. Reken my gramar aint whut it ort to be but i betcha my opinun kin git acrost jest as good as yourn wid all yer egekation. I reken i culd pint out sum mistakens whut youens maid in yer writin to but my manners wont alow me. I does preciate yer lezon in riten how ever.
Posted on July 13, 2005 6:00 PM
Susie, The Elements of Style says this: "The split infinitive is another trick of rhetoric in which the ear must be quicker than the handbook. Some infinitives seem to improve on being split, just as a stick of round stovewood does. 'I cannot bring myself to really like the fellow.' The sentence is relaxed, the meaning is clear, the violation is harmless and scarcely perceptible. Put the other way, the sentence becomes stiff, needlessly formal. A matter of ear."
Posted on July 13, 2005 6:06 PM
"That's why I like to rely on our experts to tackle grammatical questions."
I don't thik it's so much to ask for an editor -- not just a copy editor -- to be fluent in his native language.
Posted on July 14, 2005 9:22 AM
JRobinson@news-record.com to me: "I agree. By the way, I think you misspelled think."
Why not share your snarky comments with the class, JR?
In response, I'd say there is a fairly obvious difference between inadvertently missing a keystroke and being generally apathetic about the language that makes your living.
Posted on July 14, 2005 9:44 AM
Sorry, Lia. I didn't intend that to be snarky. I sent it to you privately so that you could come back on and correct it without me or anyone else making a big deal about it.
As for being apathetic about language, I am hardly that. This blog doesn't suggest apathy. I simply don't claim to be an expert in the intricacies of the rules of grammar.
Posted on July 14, 2005 9:52 AM
"A matter of ear."
It is indeed a matter of ear and it also depends on where that ear is from in this country or for that matter in this state. People in the western end of the state will often say, "I don't care to go". In the western end it means that they do not mind going or to make it easier for some, it means it's ok with me. In the eastern end of the state it would be translated as the person saying, I don't want to go. I have had to educate many a yankee and many a flatlander on the ways of the mountain language.
The point is, John, that unless you are writing for a grade or to impress it don't mount to a hill of beans on ifin you split the infinitive or not. Of course, my wife, being an editor for over 35 years would disagree with me as well as you may also. However I will repeat to you as to her, It don't mount to a hill of beans, it gets it said and folks understand and that's what counts.
yore frend frum da hills
mrP
Posted on July 14, 2005 10:04 AM
Dang Lia, bet youens kaint kep no secrats nether kan ye. Does you go blabbin whut yer boyfrend go whispren in yer year to?
Oh well, John, jist go to shew ye that ye kaint pleze hardly nobody all uv da time.
Posted on July 14, 2005 10:12 AM
Its you're fault their aren't no more steve.
Posted on July 14, 2005 11:04 AM
Dang "truth" ifin ye gonna tryn talk lak me , lest git it rite. Youens orta sayed "hits yourns falt thar aint no more steve".
but truth hit aint JRs falt. Ifin I ratly heard rite hit ware Allen whut gived in to wun er two whut had a spite fer Steve. He went and cusses a bit much but danged ifin i fount hit anny mor worser than that thar rap crap whut be on the publik are waves an whut sumtimes got writ on sum blogs.
Posted on July 14, 2005 1:08 PM
Aw heck. It's a new age. The rules of grammar went out of style right along with the fashion police years ago.
In the age of blogs, content trumps grammatical construction every time.
I have to admit the comment on it's and its hit home though. I often use the wrong form as I'm typing along but that's on account of dyslexia, not ignorance or carelessness.
Posted on July 14, 2005 5:07 PM