)
)
)
 |
|
An edited version of the letter below was published in The Australian of Thursday 24 August 2017. It was written in response to a letter which had taken one of the paper's journalists to task for splitting an infinitive. Underlined sections were deleted and bracketed ones inserted. The paper's heading was "Split on grammar".
Split infinitives and other grammatical nonsense
Steven Adams (Letters, 23/8) refers negatively to a split infinitive in the Inquirer article "Teaching the teachers" (22/8). While no doubt well-intentioned, his comment is inappropriate.
When descriptions of the grammar of English were first written, Latin had a privileged position in universities, the church and the law. Efforts were therefore made to apply the grammatical structures of Latin to English. Some worked OK, others not so much.
In Latin, as in many modern languages like French and German, the infinitive form of the verb is a single word so it cannot be "split". Often, to get the desired shade of meaning in English, an adverb needs to be deployed immediately before the main verb.
There are another two (other) of the so-called rules of traditional grammar which are also nonsense. These are the prohibitions against beginning sentences with conjunctions or ending them with prepositions.
The Inquirer piece did contain a grammatical error, or more generously a typo, but it did not relate to the use of the infinitive.
Garry Collins
Former president, Australian Association for the Teaching of English
)
Author: Garry Collins, ETAQ Immediate Past President
| Tags: General news |
May Seminar 2019: Ready, set ... mark!May Seminar: Ready, set ... mark May Seminar will be held at University of Queensland, St Lucia (tbc) on 18th May, 2019 for the full day - 9:00 am to 2:30 pm. The May seminar will focus on task design, moderation, quality assessment, and assessment and standards for years 7-10. Do you have an IA1, IA2 or IA3 task you love? Would y... |
|||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
| Register | |||||||||||||||
State Conference 2019State Conference will be held on 17th August 2019 at Lourdes Hill College,Hawthorne Road, Hawthorne. The Date Claimer and Call for Presenters is now available |
|||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
| Register | |||||||||||||||
Lisa is the Learning Area Manager for English and Languages at QCAA
This is the first time I have been to an ETAQ conference and it was really sensational to get so much at all of the sessions.
ETAQ conferences always have sessions that make me excited to be a teacher.
I know that ETAQ conferences in the past have never disappointed - valuable, relevant, practical, inspiring so I came again.
Read All
PO Box 3375, STAFFORD,
Queensland, Australia, 4053
(07) 3284 3718
ABN: 17 689 278 512
Connect to a great range of people who are passionate about English and have their finger on the pulse.
Home | Contact Us | Site Map | Print this page | RSS |
|
