split infinitive with "not" (1862)

[Tom Zurinskas]

Just a quick thought, but sometimes I think split infinitives are clearer, and clearer is better.

Ask not what your country can do for you.
Go not to that bad place.
Try not to do the wrong thing.

"Try not" seems to indicate "don't try" just as "ask not" means "don't ask."  In reality if you say "Try to not do the wrong thing" means focusing on active avoidance.

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
See truespel.com - and the 4 truespel books plus "Occasional Poems" at authorhouse.com.

> Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2008 17:02:01 -0500
> From: hwgray at GMAIL.COM
> Subject: Re: split infinitive with "not" (1862)
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Wilson Gray
> Subject: Re: split infinitive with "not" (1862)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Damn it, Jon! You had to find it, didn't you? You would probably even
> kill Kenny, given the chance. :-)
>
> Well, as Richard Pryor might have put it, "Nevertheless, 'to not' is
> unreal, an' I ain't goin' fo' it!" ;-)
>
> -Wilson
>
> On 2/5/08, Jonathan Lighter  wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender: American Dialect Society
>> Poster: Jonathan Lighter
>> Subject: split infinitive with "not" (1862)
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> 1862 in Bell I. Wiley _The Life of Johnny Reb_ (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1943) 127: I still advise you and as strongly as ever to not come to the war. I tell you you will repent it if you do I do believe.
>>
>> Perhaps the feature originated as an emphatic form. This letter-writer was fom Alabama.
>>
>> JL
>>
>>
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>
>
> --
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -----
> -Sam'l Clemens
>
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