I'm not that much of a pedant to argue over the split infinitive, but this one caught my eye as it has four words between the to and the verb.
"...appear to for the first time acknowledge...".
Source here. First sentence.
Rare Split Infinitive
Rare Split Infinitive
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.
Re: Rare Split Infinitive
That just cries out for parentheses.
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- Grand Panjandrum
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Re: Rare Split Infinitive
I choose to (very deliberately) be a pedant on split infinitives, based more on clarity than history. If I want to very carefully and thoughtfully make a distinction, I'm willing to personally split the heck out of one. The principle also applies to other long verb forms, having not always been so careful with them as one might possibly be.
pl
Re: Rare Split Infinitive
gailr wrote:That just cries out for parentheses.
Or even a pair of commas.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.
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- Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 3285
- Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2007 12:41 pm
- Location: RUSTON, LA
- Contact:
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