When splitting infinitives becomes a must for clarity’s sake

[Joe Carillo]

More than six years ago, an American reader objected strongly to what he deemed as improper splitting of infinitives in two paragraphs of a column of mine calling attention to the “at the end of the day” plague in public discourse.

I expressed my appreciation to him for sharing my aversion to “at the end of the day” and other annoying clichés. As to the use of split infinitives, however, I told him forthright that I actually split infinitives at will for stylistic purposes, keenly aware though that it can be bad for English prose if done indiscriminately.

                           IMAGE CREDIT: GRAMMAR-MONSTER.COM


Let’s take a close look at the two paragraphs where the American reader felt that I had ill-advisedly split infinitives:

1. “Second, public officials from the national level down to the local governments should undergo an English reorientation program designed to, among others, curb their predilection for using ‘at the end of the day’ and other dreadful clichés in public speaking engagements and media interviews.

2. “And third, TV and radio network owners should seriously consider penalizing talk-show hosts or news anchors with hefty fines for overusing ‘at the end of the day’ and such clichés, and to never again invite talk-show guests who habitually spout them more than, say, twice in a row during a particular show.”

In Paragraph 1, the American reader evidently considered “to, among others, curb their predilection for using ‘at the end of the day’ and other dreadful clichés” as an infinitive phrase split by the adverbial “among others.” Grammatically, however, it’s not a split infinitive phrase at all, for “to” is actually not an infinitive marker but a preposition of purpose that links the verb “designed” to its complement “curb their predilection.”

Even so, let’s see what happens when Paragraph 1 doesn’t split the infinitive phrase “designed to curb among others their predilection for using ‘at the end of the day’ and other dreadful clichés”: “Second, public officials from the national level down to the local governments should undergo an English reorientation program designed, among others, to curb their predilection for using ‘at the end of the day’ and other dreadful clichés in public speaking engagements and media interviews.”

Note that the reconstructed Paragraph 1 with the unsplit infinitive phrase wrongly implies that there are several other English reorientation programs—not only one, which is really the case—that have been designed to curb that particular predilection.

In Paragraph 2 that the American reader objected to, I split the infinitive phrase “to invite talk-show guests” by inserting “never again” to make the statement more emphatic. This resulted in this genuine split infinitive phrase: “to never again invite talk-show guests who habitually spout them.”

Now compare this to the resulting confusing statement when the infinitive phrase is unsplit and the adverbial “never again” is placed ahead of it: “…TV and radio network owners should seriously consider never again to invite talk-show guests who habitually spout them.” Here, “never again” has become a squinting modifier, seemingly modifying both the verb “consider” and the infinitive phrase “to invite talk-show guests who habitually spout them.”

Paragraph 2 gets even more confusing in syntax when, just to avoid splitting the infinitive, “never again” is positioned after the unsplit infinitive phrase: “…TV and radio network owners should seriously consider to invite talk-show guests never again who habitually spout them more than, say, twice in a row during a particular show.”

Let me end by noting that although most authorities in modern English grammar no longer object to the use of split infinitives,  they continue to invite discomfort among English purists. Still, my personal position is firm that unless a split infinitive results in bad syntax or semantics, taking recourse to it shouldn’t be fodder for debate at all.  
  
(Next week: Complications when using hyphenated possessives)      July 16, 2020

This essay, 2,022nd of the series, appeared in the column “English Plain and Simple” by Jose A. Carillo in the Campus Press section of the July 9, 2020 Internet edition of The Manila Times,© 2020 by the Manila Times Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.

Read this essay online in The Manila Times:
When splitting infinitives becomes a must for clarity’s sake