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When I split an infinitive, God damn it […] it will stay split

September 9, 2012 @ 3:38 pm · Filed under Language attitudes, Language change, Prescriptivist poppycock, Style and register, Usage advice

In the spirit of Geoff Pullum's lyrical prescriptive poppycock offering, I can offer some Raymond Chandler in verse and letter. And this being Language Log, I will follow it with a light dessert of cheap science. Here's a small sample of Chandler's 1947 poem Lines to a Lady With an Unsplit Infinitive for your edification: There […]

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Stupid less/fewer automatism at the WSJ

December 2, 2010 @ 6:03 pm · Filed under Prescriptivist poppycock

Spot the horrible effect introduced here by an over-picky Wall Street Journal subeditor: Quite often, these games don't even turn out to be good: Fewer than half of them have been decided by 10 points or fewer. That "10 points or fewer" phrase on the end is a desperate and quite ridiculous effort at obeying […]

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