# Language prescriptivism is a moral issue?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-prescriptivism-is-a-moral-issue/562431>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [November 30, 2010, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-prescriptivism-is-a-moral-issue/562431 "2010-11-30T18:04:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Paranoid\_Randroid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paranoid_randroid/32/18_2.png) [@Paranoid\_Randroid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paranoid_Randroid)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-prescriptivism-is-a-moral-issue/562431/61 "2010-12-06T14:34:47Z")

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> [@Bosstone](#):
>
> Right, that’s his rationalization.

Well, given his premises it’s still a coherent argument, so he isn’t begging the question or anything. It isn’t then quite right to say

> [@](#):
>
> It’s like saying atheists are immoral, so John can’t be an atheist because he’s a nice guy.

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**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-prescriptivism-is-a-moral-issue/562431/62 "2010-12-06T16:00:38Z")

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> [@Knorf](#):
>
> An equally no evidence that “to go” forms an infinitive that cannot or should not ever by “split” by an adverb.

Good thing I don’t have a problem with split infinitives then.

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**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/language-prescriptivism-is-a-moral-issue/562431/63 "2010-12-06T16:13:35Z")

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> [@Paranoid\_Randroid](#):
>
> Well, given his premises it’s still a coherent argument, so he isn’t begging the question or anything.

Well, given the premises of the analogy, that analogy is coherent as well. He _is_ begging the question by implicitly assuming that split infinitives are ungrammatical, so naturally there has to be another reason ‘to boldly go’ is grammatical. Voila: it’s a completely new type of compound verb that uses adverbs. Never mind that the exact same rules for adverb-verb relationships work within the infinitive as without, and there’s no reason to say “He boldly went” has a compound verb in it. “To where boldly go” is ungrammatical because “where boldly \<verb\>” is not grammatical, not because that’s a “real” split infinitive; you couldn’t use it without the infinitive anyway except in archaic syntax.

Mind, I say this as someone whose major was in Linguistics and who happily bought the most insane crap in Syntax class that was necessary to explain why certain English constructs are grammatical. It’s just a convoluted explanation that’s neatly circumvented by simply allowing that infinitives may be split in English.

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