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Feb. 11th, 2004 10:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liadnanFinished The Dante Club, highly enjoyable, mini-review when I find time. But the copy-editor needs to be taken out and shot for not catching the following, at the climax of the novel:
"Holmes [...] tried to unsuccessfully untie their hands."
Split infinitives, as Fowler pointed out long ago, are absolutely fine. But the positioning of a qualifier can radically change the meaning of the sentence. Not to mention turning it into gibberish. (Or an interesting psychological-semantic paradox, if you prefer.)
***
Do Hare Krishnas have choir practice?
"Holmes [...] tried to unsuccessfully untie their hands."
Split infinitives, as Fowler pointed out long ago, are absolutely fine. But the positioning of a qualifier can radically change the meaning of the sentence. Not to mention turning it into gibberish. (Or an interesting psychological-semantic paradox, if you prefer.)
***
Do Hare Krishnas have choir practice?
