Latest Articles by Sarah Canice Funke
Laura Kaufmann has been discussing possible band names. Of course, being an English major, she was partial to Dangling Modifers. I guess potential song titles could include "I Dreamt of You in the Woodlands, Darling" or "Meet Me Where We Used to Roam (On Sunday Afternoon)."
I kind of like The Split Infinitives myself. I'll write a song called "To Never Roller-Blade Again" or "Don't Forget to Always Clean Your Room."
My title today comes from "It Takes a Woman," Hello, Dolly. It, too, demonstrates that even popular musicals are apt to sometimes boast a split infinitive, too.
Posted by funke at 2.02.06 8:56 | TrackBack | Posted to Confessions of a Grammar NaziI was teaching grammar to some ninth graders last year, and they challenged me to come up with a good reason why we don't split infinitives besides convention. It's not like people don't understand the meaning, after all. And sometimes the non-split infinitive sounds klunky. ...And Dr. Davis isn't here any more to have mini-strokes every time Cpt. Picard proclaims his continuing mission "to boldly go where no one has gone before."
So, what reason is there? I was flummoxed.
Posted by: Krista at 2.02.06 13:32well what about band names? how 'bout Drug Helmet???!!!
Posted by: Lowen at 2.02.06 19:52Lowen: Drug Helmet sounds like heavy metal (you know, the growling, I'm-a-Viking-barbarian music). :P
I was thinking along the lines of a nice acoustic guitar and maybe a glockenspiel (Sufjan style). :)
Krista: Oh, I don't have any special reason to not split my infinitives. I do it all the time (not, of course, that my word usage is the paradigm of proper English). I have even split my helping verb phrases. I just think the band name would be cool.
Posted by: funke at 5.02.06 9:29