Saturday, May 30, 2015

grammaticality - Adverb between conjugated verb and infinitive?



The judicial function in considering and applying statutes is one of interpretation and interpretation alone. The duty of the court in every case is loyally to endeavour to ascer­tain the intention of the legislature; and to ascertain that intention by reading and interpreting the language which the legislature itself has selected for the purpose of expres­sing it. (Source)




1. What's this phenomenon called? Is this placement unusual or due to my English's primitiveness?


2. Why not situate the adverb after 'endeavour', or even split the infinitive 'to endeavour' and wedge it in between? What are the similarities and differences due to a different position?



Answer



It is (merely) an attempt to avoid the bugbear of a "split infinitive", i.e. "to loyally endeavor".


https://www.englishforums.com/English/BernardShawSplitInfinitive/wjlmg/post.htm


No comments:

Post a Comment

Simple past, Present perfect Past perfect

Can you tell me which form of the following sentences is the correct one please? Imagine two friends discussing the gym... I was in a good s...