Position of adverb 'significantly'

Question

I have the following sentence:

"To tackle climate change, it is important to reduce the CO2 emissions significantly"

An other option would be to use the adverb before the verb like:

"To tackle climate change, it is important to significantly reduce the CO2 emissions "

What is your take on that? I'd appricate every answer. Thanks in advance.

Related: Are split infinitives grammatically incorrect, or are they valid constructs? — Weather Vane, Mar 27 '20 at 14:07
Where to position adverbial *significantly* here is just a stylistic choice. You can put it immediately before or after the target verb being modified (reduce), OR at the end of the entire clause (which might not be the end of the sentence, since *To tackle climate change* could just as well occur at the end of the utterance rather than at the start). — FumbleFingers, Mar 27 '20 at 14:12
... And some would suggest that more emphasis can be given to 'significantly' at the end of an utterance. — Edwin Ashworth, Mar 27 '20 at 16:06

LPH · Answer 1 · 2020-03-27T20:23:47.830

1

I The first choice is correct; the remark of user Edwin Ashworth makes precise that "significantly" is an adverb of degree (that could be confused with an adverb of manner if one forgets that it confers extent). Although this type of adverb is usually placed before in a mid position (ref.) "significantly" is an exception and can be at the end.

When using these adverbs, be careful not to place them between the object and the verb. They often fit best after the sentence’s object or main verb.

II The second shows a case of split infinitive (ref.). The practice of the split infinitive has come and gone in the English language (ref.) and today it has reappeared, as promoted, I believe, by American English; it has become almost universally correct (ref.: "In colloquial speech the construction came to enjoy widespread use. Today, according to the American Heritage Book of English Usage, 'people split infinitives all the time without giving it a thought'. In corpora of contemporary spoken English, some adverbs such as always and completely appear more often in the split position than the unsplit.").

Notwithstanding this regained overwhelming interest for the split infinitive there are authorities advocating to avoid the practice of placing the adverb betwween the particle "to" and the base form of the verb (many teachers among others and even in the USA) (ref.).

There are a significant number of users of the English language who avoid the split infinitives and here is a discussion on the ways to achieve that: ref.. Note that the placement that is recommended in the reference in "I" does not mention the possibility of splitting the infinitive as being on an equal footing with the placement after the object (which is the case in the first sentence).

edited Mar 27 '20 at 20:23

answered Mar 27 '20 at 15:54

LPH

20,841

'There are a significant number of users of the English language who avoid the split infinitive ...'. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 27 '20 at 16:04
@EdwinAshworth Is there a rule that makes compulsory the agreement with the understated plural concept rather than the singular subject ("number" is countable, and here singular)? I see however that usage is in an enormous majority "are"(https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=there+is+a+number+of%2Cthere+are+a+number+of&year_start=1800&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cthere%20is%20a%20number%20of%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cthere%20are%20a%20number%20of%3B%2Cc0). – LPH Mar 27 '20 at 16:24
@EdwinAshworth According to this prescription, if there is no choice for "a lot of" there is one for "a number of": https://www.grammarly.com/blog/there-is-there-are/ – LPH Mar 27 '20 at 16:34
No; 'a number of' is a compound quantifier and takes a plural verb-form. Covered at A number of questions has been or have been asked?. 'A number of / several questions have been asked' // ' there are a number of / several questions remaining to be answered'. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 27 '20 at 16:54
@EdwinAshworth It is interesting to note that if we use the word "set", which differs in no way from "number" as far as the would be compound quantifier characterization is concerned, we get a blatant contradiction embodied in usage: ref.. This shows a subjective analysis of the problem in the user's thinking, and he appears to be the deciding (1/2) – LPH Mar 27 '20 at 17:13
@EdwinAshworth if we believe Chomsky. (2/2) – LPH Mar 27 '20 at 17:14
'A set of'... is not a compound quantifier, it is a collective / group noun usage. That is like saying 'a lot of' should behave like 'a collection of'. //// I'm wondering why you answered here when there is an obvious duplicate. And 'significantly' is an adverb of degree, not manner. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 27 '20 at 19:54
@EdwinAshworth I answered as it seemed to me that there was an interest in giving some information on the split infinitive position; I thought the comments from Wikipedia added something. – LPH Mar 27 '20 at 20:35
@EdwinAshworth I see an error in my comment above: when I write "blatant" I really mean merely "evident, that stands out". I wasn't aware of some of the connotations of the word. – LPH Mar 28 '20 at 00:50

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 27 '20 at 14:42

0

They're both correct and mean the same thing.

answered Mar 27 '20 at 14:42

Charlie Bernstein

981

Position of adverb 'significantly'

2 Answers2