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- Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.system
- Path: sparky!uunet!think.com!ames!nsisrv!umbra.gsfc.nasa.gov!gurman
- From: gurman@umbra.gsfc.nasa.gov (Joseph B. Gurman)
- Subject: Re: Split Infinitive in System!
- Message-ID: <gurman.725549450@umbra.gsfc.nasa.gov>
- Sender: usenet@nsisrv.gsfc.nasa.gov (Usenet)
- Nntp-Posting-Host: umbra.gsfc.nasa.gov
- Organization: Goddard Space Flight Center
- References: <725437806.AA00941@contrast.wlink.nl> <Bzxx6s.DxC@demon.co.uk>
- Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 13:30:50 GMT
- Lines: 31
-
- David Johnston <davidj@daveland.demon.co.uk> writes:
-
- >In article <725437806.AA00941@contrast.wlink.nl> Peter Kocourek,
- >qsi@contrast.wlink.nl writes:
- >>Playing with ResEdit and my System file, I managed to trash it; upon
- >>re-installing the "Ask before emptying" dialog of the trash can was
- >enabled
- >>again, and to my horror I discovered that it contains a split infinitive
- >>"...to permanently remove..."
- >>
- >>Am I just a sole lunatic in a wasteland of solecisms who notices this?
- >>
- >>(Sorry, I had to get this off my chest. :-))
-
- >I'm afraid phobias about split infinitives are not allowed on the
- >grounds that they were artificially imported from classical
- >languages. If I could be bothered, I'd check with my mother who
- >has a degree in these things but I can't so there.
-
- Now all of this has no place in comp.sys.mac.system (perhaps
- alt.english.grammar?), but in the spirit of the thing, I, for one, find
- split infinitives as hard to take as ending a sentence with a
- preposition, and that, as Churchill is reputed to have said, is
- "something up with which I will not put." Or was it shall....
- Happy New Year, grammar fans!
- Joe Gurman
- --
- J.B. Gurman / Solar Physics Branch / NASA Goddard Space Flight Center /
- Greenbelt MD 20771 USA / gurman@uvsp.gsfc.nasa.gov
- | Federal employees are prohibited from holding opinions under the Hatch Act.|
- | Therefore, any opinions expressed herein are somebody else's. |
-