To not V ?

Question

I found this in a grammar book:His hardest decision was to not allow the children to go to summer camp.What is the different meaning between it and the following:His hardest decision was not to allow the children to go to summer camp.Dear teachers, would you please share your points about it with me?Thank you very much.

Vorpar · Accepted Answer

The second sentence is ambiguous. It could possibly mean that "To allow the children to go was not his hardest decision."

Everlastinghope · Answer

Hi,
I've read once that splitting infinitive comes from attraction of English people by French people in all matters including old grammar.
A similar example was given :

I prefer to not drink coffee at night ,comes from a French sentence:
Je préfère de ne pas boire le café la nuit.
However,you can see/tinymce347/ToNotOrNotTo/ckjjb/post.htm for more information.

PS,All my apologies for wrriting in French;I just wanted to explain some interpretations regarding "to not".

Beefers1 · Answer

The infinitive in this case is "to drink", which in French is "boire", not "de boire." "Je préfère de ne pas boire (qqch)" is a French thing that doesn't really have a direct English translation.

I think the meaning of "his hardest decision was not to allow the children to go to summer camp" depends on context. It can be like what Vorpar said, but usually we're able to distinguish it clearly enough. To me, it's like saying "All arghs are not thargs" or something like that, when you really mean "not all arghs are thargs," except no one says the latter even when they mean it.

Terryxpress · Answer

Who are we to pronounce judgment on the split infinitive, when Amer. Eng. grammarians say cool, and Brit. Eng. grammarians consider it a no-no.

Having said that....................

.....consider the sense of what is being said:
His hardest decision was...
This implies that the decision was wavering around the 50% FOR/AGAINST mark. The sense of this is far more conveyed with...
His hardest decision was not to allow the children to go to summer camp.
To say,
His hardest decision was to not allow the children to go to summer camp.
...dissipates the emphasis of the final decision.

At other times, as with
'to boldly go' . Here, the emphasis is decidedly on the 'go', and I'd defy even Oxford on that one. Modern culture wouldn't be where it is today.............

Yet...
"Your best bet is to simply go and see what happens." : Does that mean, wear casual gear?
Much better expressed as:
"Your best bet is simply to go and see what happens."
Remember that the basis of English is the ego-centric nature of the language, and what best expresses your point of view and intended meaning. All that English asks in return is to be loved for its versatility and plasticity, and to be respected.

Beefers1 · Answer

It's not an issue of American vs British English (many, if not most, grammatical disagreements aren't). But you make a very good point regarding the fluidity of the language used.

Henry74 · Answer

Hi,

I'm not a native speaker, so forgive my bold intrusion, but don't you think that there are cases, like this one, when the rule could be amended?
As already pointed out, in the second sentence not can be read either as internal negation (negating allowing) or as external negation (negating was). This would render meaning unassignable, absent a context or a vocalization.
The first sentence, on the other hand, has a univocal reading. Don't you think that, perhaps, in this one and all similar cases, that should be the one considered valid?
If I have to be completly honest, to my foregneir, untrained ear, that first sentence doesn't sound like a split infinitive when I say it out loud; although I recognize that, lexically, it is one. Maybe because I read was to together, I don't know.
Anyway, I don't mean to presume. It was just a thought.

H.

Enoon · Answer

The split infinitive is a fiction made up by scholars in days of yore who wanted English to be like Latin. There is no basis in natural English for a prohibition against it. It just goes to show you, you can't kill an idea. Split all the infinitives you want.

"To not allow" might not be a split infinitive, anyway, when you really look at it. It's the same as "to disallow".

The first sentence is right, if we have to pick one of these two, because the second is ambiguous.

Those are my points, for what they're worth.

Terryxpress · Answer

enoon: The split infinitive is a fiction made up by scholars in days of yore who wanted English to be like Latin. There is no basis in natural English for a prohibition against it. It just goes to show you, you can't kill an idea. Split all the infinitives you want.
Your cavalier approach to this issue - Split all the infinitives you want - may not be so reassuring to learners intending to take the Cambridge Test, who doubt your credentials as an Authority are sufficient to outgun Cambridge and Oxford.

You mention "natural English". Similarly brushing aside my reservations concerning the use of 'natural' here, an example we have closest to a 'native' English language is:

Pub den oll yw genys frank ha kehaval yn dynita ha gwiryow. Yth yns i enduys gans reson ha cowses hag y tal dhedhans gwul dhe udn orth y gila yn spyrys a vredereth.

I for one appreciate the efforts of the "scholars in days of yore" in moulding such beginnings into our modern tongue!

And in 'splitting all the infinitives we want' - you make no mention that this should be tempered by sense, and meaning of the message - we arrive at:
You have to really watch him. = You have to watch him very closely (to appreciate just how deft he is when it comes to card tricks).
and

You really have to watch him. = It’s important that you watch him (because he is likely to help himself to money in the till).

To reiterate: let sense and intended meaning determine the placement of the adverb if the issue of 'to split or not to split' arises.

Everlastinghope · Answer

Hi beefers1,
I didn't talk about the infinitive as you mentioned in "to drink",and I didn't say that it can be "de boir".
I just said that if you have a setence in french,and if you translate word by word(de ne pas...=it would be to not ).

Everlastinghope · Answer

What about this sentence;I think that to+not can't be applied here.

You are not to sit up late tonight.(which I think it has meaning of obligation)

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