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Author: Xtifr

Dec 12th 2012 at 3:45:36 PM

^^ If preventing removal were my ''only'' reason, you'd have a good point, but it's not. I think the footnote is informative, useful, and mildly humorous. Of course, if we remove the ''quote'', then there's no reason for the footnote, and I'm currently inclined to remove the quote for the reasons you brought up earlier, so this whole digression is probably moot.

^ I'm not sure why you keep bringing up descriptivists. That has nothing to do with this. ''Prescriptivitists'' claim (and some have always claimed) that the split infinitive is perfectly correct.  Descriptivists, on the other hand, are ''scientists'', and they ''classify'' usage, rather than using vague terms like "correct" (though they have no hesitation to say "incorrect", even for things that people say fairly regularly). '''Dictionaries are written by descriptivists.''' And here's what the American Heritage dictionary [[http://americanheritage.yourdictionary.com/split-infinitive has to say]]:
-> "...In some contexts, the split infinitive is unavoidable, as in the sentence ''We expect our output to more than double in a year.''"

Is an actual dictionary a reliable enough source for you?  (Why you don't think Fowler, Strunk and White, The Chicago Manual of Style, or the AP Style Manual aren't reliable sources I cannot fathom.)