the latin infinitive is the closest thing in the 'classics' to the english to+base verb

and so people decided that the particle 'to' was an inseparable part of the verb, like the infinitive in latin. They basically wanted people to stop putting adverbs after 'to' because they were exceptions which didn't fit the rules of latin. That way, 'to' could be seen to be an integral part of the verb and likened to the infinitive in Latin.

Latin is a very organised, structured language. English is not. You can not use the same systems to prescribe or even describe the rules of the two languages.

Anyway, i shouldn't be defending my case at all, you should be justifying why a split infinitive is so bad. What happens if people use split infinitives? Does the entire language crumble around us and we have to go around using sign language to communicate?

Posted By: Dave in France, Jul 13, 16:33:27