CAPTAIN KIRK’S SPLIT INFINITIVE

By Alan Simon
Like the TV show from the 60’s?
“Space, the final frontier

These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise

Its five year mission

To explore strange new worlds

To seek out new life

And new civilizations

To boldly go where no man has gone before”

 SO WHAT’S AN INFINITIVE?

“An infinitive is the basic form or name of a verb. In English, it is always made with the word “to.””
(Mike Maloon)

For Example:
To Run
To Dance
To Play
To Fly
To Eat
So what’s a Split Infinitive?
A construction consisting of an infinitive with an
adverb or other word inserted between
“to” and “the verb”
(Oxford Dictionary)

e.g. She seems to really like it.

There it is!
So when Captain Kirk said “...To Boldly go..” He was splitting
an infinitive?

YES!
“In the 19th century when
English scholars began to
write formal grammars of
English. They based their
thinking on Latin grammar. So it’s not proper grammar to split infinitives?
.
And because Latin infinitives
are just one word long – eg.
“amare” (to love) or “ducere”
(to lead) – the grammarians
decreed that English
infinitives should not be split.”
(Mike Maloon)
The Star Trek phrase “to boldly go.” Here, the
infinitive to go is split by the adverb boldly.
➔ An infinitive expresses a single
idea, one unit of thought so we try
to keep its two parts (the marker
to and the root verb that follows it)
together if we can. It makes for
easy reading and as a writer you
want to make it easier for the
reader to follow along and
understand what you are trying to
to express.
 But What if a Split Infinitive sounds good?
Which Sounds better?

● Even in the twenty-first century, human beings are unable to fully comprehend the vastness and
complexity of the universe. [Here fully splits the infinitive to comprehend.]

● Even in the twenty-first century, human beings are unable fully to comprehend the vastness and
complexity of the universe. [Do we mean fully unable or fully comprehend? Plus, this construction is simply
awkward.]
(Nancy Tuten)
References:
www.wizeprep.com/blog/the-split-infinitive
www.genius.com/Star-trek-star-trek-opening-
lyrics
www.getitwriteonline.com/split-infinitives/

Have I been writing

“wrong”
all this time?
 NO!
You just have to know your
audience

Wouldn’t it be silly and time consuming

to completely redo a piece of writing just to
painstakingly avoid splitting infinitives. However , I’d avoid
If your audience allows for you to really be yourself splitting infinitives if
and express yourself the way you want to then you were writing a
having the freedom to joyfully write however you letter to your bank
want is a luxury a writer can afford. manager asking for
(See what I did there?) a loan.