Re: Re: Those pesky negatives (revisited)

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 8/11/04 11:41:08 AM, editor at WORLDWIDEWORDS.ORG writes:


> > I wonder how we can really tell that previous generations didn't
> > say/write "to not V"; I'd think that a proscription of split
> > infinitives would automatically extend to these (and to "to never V").
>
> I've not been following this thread with deep attention, so my
> apologies if the wrong end of the stick is in my hand, especially as
> there are other constructions that look superficially similar. Some
> cases that look like it, nearly all representations of uneducated
> speech:
>

It would be a pretty easy task to seach two or three of the vast repositories
of online literature from medieval times until now to see what earlier
generations of "educated" speakers did.