All around good effort boys ...
Keep it going ...

artie_fufkin wrote:

Mags wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

I'd like to see Oh get a couple of good left-handed hitters out before I start thinking he can be trusted again.
Forgive the split infinitive, please.

1.  I don't see a split inifinitive
2.  I align myself with several experts on style who dismiss the condemnation of split infinitives as a fetish

So.  Nothing to forgive.
 

 
You're too kind. I had a batshit crazy prof in college who would mark you down a full letter grade if she sniffed out one. The proper sentence structure would be "I'd like to see Oh get out a couple of good left-handed hitters ..."
I also had an American lit prof whose lunch usually consisted of oyster crackers and a pint of Old Crow. Harper Lee was his heroine. If you took one of his afternoon classes, all you had to say was "Dr. Langston, who is the real protagonist in 'To Kill A Mockingbird?'" and he was good for an hour rant about social injustice.

"To see" is an infinitive unsplit.  I think "get out" is a compound verb, not an infiinitive.  For many years, the N.Y Times Style Manual recommended splitting a compound verb most of the time.  Unfortunately, some more recent assholes who think they know but don't have changed that.

I think in this instance not splitting "get out" might be better but I'm not at all sure. 
 

...but, seriously, as someone who considered diagramming sentences fun, I find this discussion fascinating. Hard for me to decide whether Mags is right about the compound verb or if "out" is really an adverb

JV wrote:

...but, seriously, as someone who considered diagramming sentences fun, I find this discussion fascinating. Hard for me to decide whether Mags is right about the compound verb or if "out" is really an adverb

I was still thinking about that possibility when I went to bed last night.  Seriously.  Without having seen your reply.

If "out" is an adverb, Arte is definitely not splitting an infinitve.  Still, it bothers me that I don't know whether we have a compound verb or not.
 

Last edited by Mags (8/09/2017 8:53 am)

don.rob11 wrote:

Well gosh lee damn , here i was thinkin' I were in a talk about baseball , and I done up an woken in to one o' 'em err englind classes....

Which network are you with?
 

APIAD wrote:

Grammer is for smart people

 
Ahhhhhhh, good one AP .
I see what you did there .....

APIAD wrote:

Grammer is for smart people

 
There's a police officer in the city in which I work whose last name is Grammer, like you've spelled it. When we did the police log at the paper, we would put the cop's name at the end of each item, "Officer Smith investigated at 4:47 a.m. ..." and so forth. Whenever Officer Grammer's name came up, the silly autocorrect would change it to "Grammar," and when you went to change it back, the program would ask you "Are you sure?" It was like arguing with my mother-in-law.