(urth) torturing BTQ

[Jerry Friedman]

--- On Thu, 7/23/09, James Wynn <crushtv at gmail.com> wrote:

...

> I'm categorizing this so-called
> error with the Split Infinitive rule
> (http://www.newdream.net/~scully/toelw/Lowth.htm).
...

Speaking of pet peeves, that article hit one of mine.
Lowth's grammar book never mentions split infinitives.
Yes, I read the whole book looking for that.  Everything
I know about split infinitives (and some things other
people know) is at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_infinitive

On the subject of ending sentences with prepositions, I
quoted at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Lowth

what Lowth actually said, which isn't exactly what Scott E.
Kapel's article (linked to above) might lead you to think.
(If you can read the gray on black.)

I'd say BTQ is what Bryan Garner calls "skunked".
Whichever sense you use it in, people will misunderstand
or criticize you.  When it's used to mean a logical
fallacy, I don't remember seeing it with the question in
apposition.

Jerry Friedman