Revising Split Infinitives

Question

One of my students refuses to split infinitives. His solution is to put the adverb directly before the infinitive, without fail, five times in two pages of writing. Telling him to split the infinitive will go nowhere.

Examples: I need carefully to consider. . . I need intentionally to direct . . .

Another post discussed the meaning change between "I decided to go quickly" and "I quickly decided to go." In the student's examples, it is doubtful that clarity is at stake, but the order still feels unnatural to me. I've told him before that the adverb appears roughly connected to the main verb. What else can I say? This student knows grammar well and turns in otherwise immaculate work.

Or do his sentences sound natural to you?

Perhaps the student is a fan of Elizabethan phrasing. Do they enjoy watching Star Trek? If so, its tagline might be persuasive. — Lawrence, Dec 05 '17 at 23:20
Good description! How would you respond? I want the writing to sound natural to reach a wider audience, but I also want to respect his style as a careful writer. — Amatheses, Dec 05 '17 at 23:23
Possible duplicate of Are split infinitives grammatically incorrect, or are they valid constructs?. See also Pullum's take on this, given at 'to further assist you': split infinitive or fixed vp?. — Edwin Ashworth, Dec 05 '17 at 23:33
Unfortunately, the type of stylistic advice you're asking about is outside the remit of this community, but you might want to try Writers.SE and LanguageLearning.SE. Have a look at their 'tour' and 'help' pages before posting, though (links are available at bottom of each page). Perhaps you can have your student read some classics - or any literature they enjoy and respect - and point out the split infinitives employed to good effect. You might even make a homework assignment out of that. :) — Lawrence, Dec 05 '17 at 23:33
The main umbrella organisation, the Syrian National Coalition, was supposed to do three things: expand its membership, elect a new leader and decide whether unconditionally to attend the Geneva talks. — tchrist, Dec 05 '17 at 23:43
What's wrong with: I need to consider carefully etc. No split there. — Lambie, Dec 05 '17 at 23:53
Have you asked the student if they consider inserting an adverb/adverbial in a to-infinitive ungrammatical (in which case they're disagreeing with Grammar Czar G Pullum and many other linguists) or merely an inferior style choice? — Edwin Ashworth, Dec 05 '17 at 23:54
These Google Ngrams would seem to show that the student is woefully out of step. This may well reduce to the prescriptivist ... descriptivist debate.... — Edwin Ashworth, Dec 06 '17 at 00:02
While prescriptivism is not to be totally discarded, it is amazing how many people assume that the rule they learned at school (etc) was the original one. And the one generally accepted. — Edwin Ashworth, Dec 06 '17 at 00:06
@EdwinAshworth Seldom does grammar school teach rules of grammar. — tchrist, Dec 06 '17 at 00:10
@EdwinAshworth I mean that the things they teach are seldom rules of grammar that explain how a language’s grammar actually works. Mostly it's just coaching on the flourishes and fritillaries of fine penmanship. Has nothing to do with how language works, at all. — tchrist, Dec 06 '17 at 00:19
@tchrist 'the flourishes and fritillaries of fine penmanship.' is both highly attractive and a torment for 'how closely situated do words have to be to be considered alliterative' pedants. — Edwin Ashworth, Dec 06 '17 at 09:12
You’re confusing three separate issues. Can infinitives be split; do infinitives need to be split; do, for instance I decided to go quickly and I quickly decided to go mean anything similar? — Robbie Goodwin, Dec 06 '17 at 23:35
What's your actual question here? How to teach someone with this mindset? — curiousdannii, Dec 11 '17 at 08:00

Revising Split Infinitives

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