{"id":388,"date":"2012-03-29T23:58:38","date_gmt":"2012-03-30T04:58:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/?p=388"},"modified":"2013-02-26T19:29:15","modified_gmt":"2013-02-27T00:29:15","slug":"everyone-should-just-pay-more-attention-to-star-trek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/?p=388","title":{"rendered":"Everyone Should Just Pay More Attention to Star Trek"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/star_trek_1a.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-389\" title=\"star_trek_1a\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/star_trek_1a-300x220.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"220\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/star_trek_1a-300x220.jpg 300w, https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/star_trek_1a.jpg 630w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>And not for the obvious\u00a0aspirational\u00a0reasons, involving a\u00a0Utopian future.\u00a0\u00a0I got to thinking lately about various grammar prescriptions as they relate to Star Trek. \u00a0For instance, the old saw that one shouldn&#8217;t split an infinitive, which some weirdo came up with long ago while laboring under the\u00a0misapprehension\u00a0that English should be like Latin for some reason. \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/itre.cis.upenn.edu\/~myl\/languagelog\/archives\/000901.html\">Those in the know realize that this particular rule doesn&#8217;t have a leg to stand on<\/a>, but it still gets play. \u00a0The thing is, unlike a lot of silly grammar prescriptions that some random person came up with, we have a wonderful counter-example looking us in the eye all the time: Good old Star Trek, and its &#8220;Five-Year (Continuing) Mission: To Boldly Go Where No Man (No One) Has Gone Before&#8221;. \u00a0So fine, an English teacher once told you not to split an infinitive, but what should Gene Roddenberry have gone with instead, smart guy? \u00a0&#8220;To Go Boldly Where No Man Has Gone Before&#8221;? \u00a0Blah. \u00a0Lands with a thud, amiright? \u00a0I&#8217;m agnostic on the difference between the old-school &#8220;No Man&#8221; versus &#8220;No One&#8221;, but clearly keeping that infinitive together doesn&#8217;t work as well. \u00a0Of course, the ironic thing is that people often hold up Star Trek as an example of something that breaks the rules without seeming to realize that they&#8217;re undercutting themselves. \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/itre.cis.upenn.edu\/~myl\/languagelog\/archives\/002054.html\">Of course, such is often the case.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>But wait! \u00a0Not only does the opening of Star Trek split and infinitive, it uses an adverb! \u00a0So let&#8217;s &#8220;correct&#8221; it fully (see what I did there?): &#8220;To Go Where No Man Has Gone Before, In a Bold Fashion&#8221;. \u00a0Is this really better? \u00a0Bah. \u00a0Of course, that&#8217;s the problem with absolute rules. \u00a0You can come up with all the examples you like where splitting an infinitive is confusing or throwing in an adverb is annoying, but all it takes is one counter-example to show why the rule\u00a0shouldn&#8217;t\u00a0be applied mindlessly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>And not for the obvious\u00a0aspirational\u00a0reasons, involving a\u00a0Utopian future.\u00a0\u00a0I got to thinking lately about various grammar prescriptions as they relate to Star Trek. \u00a0For instance, the old saw that one shouldn&#8217;t split an infinitive, which some weirdo came up with long ago while laboring under the\u00a0misapprehension\u00a0that English should be like Latin for some reason. \u00a0Those in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-grammar-gripery"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluecandlesociety.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}