THE ENGLISH INFINITIVE AND
SPLIT INFINITIVES

© 2001 by Orchid Land Publications

C.-J. N. Bailey

[20011213 (tris)]

     The infinitive, which can function as a noun (subject or object) or modifier (adjective or adverb), usually has purposive import, in contrast with the matter-of-fact gerund.  Cf. "To do that would require [not: "requires"] a lot of effort" : "Doing that requires a lot of effort."  "We save up (in order) to pay for a bigger one"  : "We saved up for the sake of paying for a bigger one."

     (Noun or nominal uses)  "To live like that is to live wretchedly."
                                              "He would hate to live like that."
     (Adjectival use)   "That's easy [for them] to do."
     (Adverbial use)    "She worked (in order) to pay for her child's education."
                                  "He saved up (in order) for his family to be able to have a car."

     The infinitive has three forms:

For [nominal] to V, as in "It was necessary for them to depart." (For is a complementizer like that in It was necessary that they depart.")

(Nominal) to V, as in "She ordered them to do it" and "He wanted to do it."
[zero] V, used after true modal, causative-make/have, and perceptual verbs: "We heard them depart" (also with the participle: "departing")," "That made it fail," "They had it done quickly"—with which contrast "I caused it to fail, I got it done quickly," and "We got them to do it.".

Where to is present, we speak of a long infinitive; where to is absent, we speak of a short infinitive. In at least one environment, viz. following than or as, either is possible; e.g. "It is better to succeed than (to) fail." Note that For, for to, and to are complementizers quite parallel with auxiliary (cf. "be doing, have done, got caught") and modal verbs (cf. "will do, can help, should leave") in creating a given verb modality. The idea that a split infinitive—it refers to separating to from the verb—is incorrect would, if consistenly applied, make the following "incorrect": "had already finished," "was then undergoing," "may have previously been discussed." Objections to split infinitives are due to ignorance of English structures.