The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #159749   Message #3786173
Posted By: Steve Shaw
19-Apr-16 - 07:58 PM
Thread Name: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
Subject: RE: BS: Grammar Police/Pedant alert
If you think that it's wrong to say "to boldly go" because it's a split infinitive, you're wrong on two counts. First, constructions of the kind "to...(verb)" have been "split" merrily since time immemorial. Just because some crusty old Victorian pedant (whoever it was) says it's wrong, it doesn't make it wrong. Second, and more devastating still, "to" is not part of the infinitive in any case. In "to boldly go," the word "go" is the whole of the infinitive, sometimes referred to as the bare infinitive. Just think: if I said to you "Would you have me tell you a lie?", the word "tell" is the infinitive. Poor old "to" not only doesn't get a look-in, but it would actually be absurd to insert it: "Would you have me to tell you a lie?" See?