Captain Kirk’s infinitive

The infinitive in English has the form to + the base form of the verb, as in to go, and can be used with an adverb such as boldly. At the beginning of each televised Star Trek episode, one of the main characters, Captain Kirk, always used the expression To boldly go … This is an example of a split infinitive. Captain Kirk’s teacher might have expected him to say To go boldly or Boldly to go, so that the adverb didn’t split the infinitive. If Captain Kirk had been a Roman space traveler, speaking Latin, he would have used the expressions ire (“to go”) and audacter (“boldly”). Now, in saying Ire audacter … in Latin, Capitaneus Kirkus would not even have the opportunity to split his infinitive (ire), because Latin infinitives are single words and just do not split.

It would be very appropriate in Latin grammar to say you cannot split an infinitive. But is it appropriate to carry this idea over into English where the infinitive form does not consist of a single word, but of two words, to and go? If it is a typical feature of the use of English that speakers and writers regularly produce forms such as to boldly go, to solemnly swear or to never ever say goodbye, then we may simply wish to note that there are structures in English that differ from those found in Latin, rather than think of the English forms as “bad” because they are breaking a rule of Latin grammar.

مواضيع ذات صلة

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