Another panorama from yesterday. The views across Bowes Moor are almost infinite.
We are back at Barnard Castle. This morning was not conducive to photography so I cut my losses and headed back down into the Tees valley.
Yesterday GB at EAGLETON NOTES commented on my writing style, very flattering it was too. He writes well, so I could have misunderstood but it set me thinking about the use of split infinitives. Are they good, bad or tolerable. For those that don’t know…..I had to do serious research on how to spell infinitive before I could even look up it’s definition…. A split infinitive is putting an adverb between to and the verb. ‘To boldly go where no man has gone before.’ Is a well known example and perfectly acceptable to me. ‘To go boldly where no man has gone before.’ Though correct, I find pedantic.
I have been reading a few of my posts (now there’s a surprise) and notice an alarming tendency to split sentences into clauses with a line of full stops. I have no idea what this grammatical error is called but have little doubt it’s heinous. If you find it annoying or enough of you do then I’ll put an immediate stop to it………….If I remember in time!
There is an issue of incorrect grammar that I don’t like and it is the increasing habit of starting sentences with the conjunctions and or but.
Enough of this balderdash, more than enough. I’ll leave you with a quotation from George Bernard Shaw written after an editor tampered with his infinitives…….Please excuse the innuendo.
“ I don’t care if he is made to go quickly, or to quickly go – but go he must!”
The weather looks to be brightening so will have a walk into town and try for some more pictures.
All the best.
That little flower looks like eyebright - very attractive when you look at them close-up. Great wide-open spaces - haven't been to Tan Hill for years. Have you been over to Wensleydale to have a look at Hardraw Force waterfall? You have to go through the Green Dragon pub to get to it. My kind of waterfall.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that Phil. one could easily miss it. Makes me wonder what the smallest flower is. We need some rain for waterfalls to be good but apart from a quick trip to Devon I will be around this area for a while so will keep adding your kind suggestions to the list. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteAs always, it's nice to know when someone cares about writing. I like how you mix words with pictures.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant. I'm sorry to say that I am rather guilty of starting sentences with a conjunction but every time I do I feel a pang. A pang that I no longer feel when ending a sentence with a preposition or even splitting an infinitive when it is appropriate. I also am a liberal user of the multiple stop. Sometimes the stops end with a full stop. And sometimes they don't. Oops....
ReplyDeleteJolynne, It's a bad habit but the pictures come first then the story, which can vary in veracity, writes itself.
ReplyDeleteGB, There is a time and place for everything. Blogs are generally a form of diary or reportage. An informal style suits them Know what I'm on about.
I enjoyed that piece of "balderdash". Now there's a word only a Brit can use with any conviction. It's the ending a sentence with a preposition that spoils the fun of writing for me. I have turned poor Sister Francis (who once did her best to teach me grammar) over in her grave so many times she may well have spun out of heaven by now.
ReplyDeletePauline, we are all guilty. That's what editors are for. Even they are fallible. My all time favourite headline came from The Daily Telegraph and headed an article on the famous polar explorer.
ReplyDelete"Vivian Fuchs off to Antartic."
Balderdash is hardly in common usage here. It just has a whimsical tone I like.
English Language was a subject at school that I really loved. And I'm guilty as hell of abusing it.........but I really don't care.
ReplyDeleteI know it is a forgiving mistress; unlike some I've known ;)
You are quite right Keith. Unlike a dead language like Latin it is an exciting and evolving thing. long may it remain so.
ReplyDelete