POSEUR

The verb meaning nonplus (with its noun poser unanswerable question) is a different word from that meaning to lay down or place, being shortened from appose.

poseur. See FRENCH WORDS.

The word

POSITION OF ADVERBS. adverb is here to be taken as including adverbial phrases (e.g. for a time) & adverbial clauses (e.g. if possible), adjectives used predicatively (e.g. alone), & adverbial conjunctions (e.g. then), as well as simple adverbs such as soon & undoubtedly. To lay down & illustrate exhaustive rules would not be possible in reasonable compass; nor is there any need to do so; the mistakes that occur are almost always due to certain false principles, & these may be isolated for treatment. Many readers may justly feel that they do not require advice on so simple a matter as where their adverbs should go, &, to save them the trouble of reading this long article, here is a string of sentences exhibiting all the types of misplacement to be discussed. Those who perceive that the adverb in each is wrongly placed, & why, can safely neglect the rest; the bracketed number after each refers to the section in which its type is discussed:-The people are returning & trying to again get together a home (1)./He came to study personally the situation (2)./He exercised an influence that is still potent & has yet adequately to be measured on the education of our younger artists (3)./It deals with matters as to which most persons long ago have made up their minds (4)./We still are of opinion that the only way of getting rid of abuses' is a root-&branch alteration of the thing itself (5)./The Food Ministry must either take action or defend effectively their inactivity (6)./To decry the infantry arm for the sake unduly of piling up artillery & what not, is the notion of persons who... (7)./As the Monroe doctrine' of late years has loomed so

now

largely in all discussions upon the international policy of the United States, an attempt to trace its growth & development as a popular · cry' might prove of some service (8).

There are certain verb groups about which the question is conceivableShould they be allowed to be interrupted by adverbs? Such are the infinitive e.g. to try (may we say to earnestly try?), the compound verb e.g. have thought (may we say I have never thought so ?), the copula & complement e.g. was a riddle (may we say He was in some ways a riddle?), the verb & its object e.g. passed the time (may we say It passed pleasantly the time?), the gerund & its governing preposition e.g. by going (may we say by often going?). The first of these questions is a very familiar one; almost all who aspire to write English have had the split infinitive forced on their attention, & the avoidance of it has become a fetish; the other questions are not familiar, but the points here to be made are that they also require consideration, that a universal yes or a universal no is not the right answer either to the split-infinitive question or to any of the others, that the various answers sometimes come into conflict, & that to concentrate on the split-infinitive question & let the others take care of themselves is absurd.

The misplacements to be considered will be taken under the heads :1. Split infinitive. 2. Fear of split infinitive. 3. Imaginary split infinitive passive. 4. Splitting of the compound verb. 5. Separation of copulative verb & complement. 6. Separation of transitive verb & object. 7. Separation of preposition & gerund. 8. Heedless misplacings.

1. Split infinitive. The heinousness of this offence is estimated in the article SPLIT INFINITIVE. Here the general result of that estimate is merely assumed, viz: (A) that to love is a definitely enough recognized verb-form to make the clinging

POSITION OF ADVERBS, 2

together of its parts the natural & normal thing, (B) that there is, however, no sacro-sanctity about that arrangement, (C) that adverbs should be kept outside if there is neither anything gained by putting them inside nor any difficulty in finding them another place, but (D) that such gain or difficulty will often justify the confessedly abnormal splitting. One pair of examples will throw light on C & D-The people are now returning & trying to again get together a home./With us outside the Treaty, we must expect the Commission to at least neglect our interests. In the first, it is easy to write to get a home together again, &, as again does not belong to the single word get, but to get a home together, nothing is gained by its abnormal placing. In the second, at least cannot be put before to because it would then go with Commission (= the Commission, even if not other people), nor after neglect because it would then be doubtful whether it referred back to neglect or forward to interests, nor after interests because it would then belong either to interests or to neglect our interests, neither being what is meant; where it stands, it secures our realizing that the writer has in mind some other verb such as injure or oppose with which the weaker neglect is to be contrasted.

In a split infinitive, however, we have not so much a misplacing of the adverb as a violence done to the verb. It is by repulsion, not by attraction, that the infinitive acts in effecting the many misplacings, to be shown below, for which it is responsible.

2. Fear of split infinitive. The order of words in the following examples is bizarre enough to offend the least cultivated ear; the reason why the writers, whose ears were perhaps no worse than their neighbours', were not struck by it is that they were obsessed by fear of infinitive-splitting. It will be seen that the natural (not necessarily

the best) place for the adverb in each is where it would split an infinitive. Such gentlemen are powerless to analyse correctly agricultural conditions./A body of Unionist employers which still has power to influence greatly opinion among those who work for them./Might I kindly ask you to forward? The

place into which each adverb has been shifted is such that one or other of the faults explained in later sections is committed, & the writer is OUT OF THE FRYING-PAN into the fire; see especially 6.

But the terrorism exercised by the split infinitive is most conspicuous where there is in fact (see next section) no danger.

3. Imaginary split infinitive passive. In the following examples it is again clear that the natural place for the adverb is not where it now stands, but invariably after the words to be. To insert an adverb between to & be would be splitting an infinitive; to insert one between to be & forgotten or pained is nothing of the kind, but is a particular case of the construction explained in 5. The position after to be is not only the natural one in these sentences, but the best. The mistake-& that it is a definite mistake there is no doubt whatever-is so common that many examples are called for :The awkward necessity for getting to work & working as hard as possible & with hearty goodwill altogether seems to be forgotten./Every citizen worth the name ought vitally to be concerned in today's election./All of who believe in Parliamentary institutions cannot fail deeply to be pained at reading the story./But if the home trade were really in a bad state, it would be impossible for the workers so fully to be employed as they have been & are./There were those who thought the Turkish Government would not be willing to adopt a policy of conciliation, but it looks as if they were agreeably to be disappointed./The nuisance of allowing visitors to cross the footlights had

us

POSITION OF ADVERBS, 4

begun so much to be felt by the London theatrical managers that they .../We think the public will not fail unfavourably to be impressed by the shifting nature of the arguments./ An Act has been passed enabling agricultural land compulsorily to be acquired at a fair market price./The right of the privately managed denominational school wholly to be maintained out of public money.

4. Splitting of the compound verb. By compound verb is meant a verb made up of an auxiliary (or more than one) & an infinitive (without to) or participle. When an adverb is to be used with such a verb, its normal place is between the auxiliary (or sometimes the first auxiliary if there are two or more) & the rest. Not only is there no such objection to thus splitting a compound verb as there is to splitting an infinitive, but any other position for the adverb requires special justification : I have never seen her, not I never have seen her, is the ordinary idiom, though the rejected order becomes the right if emphasis is to be put on have (I may have had chances of seeing Bernhardt, but I never have seen her). But it is plain from the string of examples now to come that a prejudice has grown up against dividing compound verbs; it is probably a supposed corollary of the accepted split-infinitive prohibition; at any rate, it is entirely unfounded. In each of the first five extracts there is one auxiliary, & after that instead of before it the adverb should have been put; the other six have two auxiliaries each, which raises a further question to be touched upon afterwards-Single auxiliary: If his counsel still is followed, the conflict' is indeed inevitable. / Its very brief span of insect-eating activity hardly can redeem its general evil habit as a grain-devourer. / Politicians of all sorts in the United States already are girding up their loins for the next election./Yet one of the latest Customs rulings by the United States Board of Appraisers assuredly, to use the

POSITION OF ADVERBS, 4

phrase its members best would understand, is the limit './Two years later he went to Russia as British Ambassador, & he also was entrusted with the mission of carrying the Garter to.../Double auxiliary: Oxford must heartily be congratulated on their victory./If the desired end is ever attained it earnestly may be hoped that especial care will be taken with the translation./The importance which quite rightly has been given to reports of their meetings./The Maharaja made arrangements for her education, which never since has been permitted to languish./A German apologist anxious to prove that the war had needlessly been prolonged by the Entente./It is fortunate that a certain amendment which they desired was not carried, or it would gravely have imperilled the solvency of certain of the approved societies.

Write must be heartily congratulated, it may be earnestly hoped, which has quite rightly been given, which has never since been permitted, had been needlessly prolonged, would have gravely imperilled. This minor point of whether the adverb is to follow the first auxiliary or the whole auxiliary depends on the answer to a not very simple riddle-Is it in intimate connexion with the verbal notion itself independently of the temporal or other limitations imposed by the auxiliaries? Fortunately this riddle can be translated into simpler terms-Do the adverb & verb naturally suggest an adjective & noun ? if so, let them stand next each other, & if not, not. Heartily congratulated, earnestly hoped, needlessly prolonged, gravely imperilled, suggest hearty congratu lations, earnest hope, needless prolongation, & grave peril; but rightly given does not suggest right gift or right giving, & still less does never since permitted suggest no subsequent permission; which means that the notions of giving & permitting are qualified by rightly & never since not absolutely, but under the particular limitations of the

POSITION OF ADVERBS, 5

auxiliaries, & that the adverb is better placed between the auxiliaries than next to given & permitted. This, however, is a minor point, as was said above; the main object of this section is to stress the certain fact that there is no objection whatever to dividing a compound verb by adverbs.

5. Separation of copulative verb & complement. This is on the same footing as the separation of the compound verb discussed in 4; that is, it is a delusion to suppose that the insertion of an adverb between the two parts is a solecism, or even, like the splitting of the infinitive, a practice to be regarded as abnormal. On the contrary, it is the natural arrangement, & in the following examples fundamentally, also, & often, have been mistakenly shifted from their right place owing to a superstition :-It would be a different thing if the scheme had been found fundamentally to be faulty, but that is not the case./It is not always in these times that the First Lord of the Treasury also is Prime Minister./The immense improvement which they have wrought in the condition of the people, & which often is quite irrespective of the number of actual converts.

6. Separation of transitive verb & its object. The mistakes discussed in sections 2 to 5 have this in common, that they spring from a desire, instinctive or inculcated, to keep the parts of a verb group together & allow no adverb to intrude into it. But there is one kind of group whose breaking up by adverbs that ought to have been placed not in the middle of it, but before or after the whole, is only too common. That

is the group consisting of a transitive verb & its object. I had to second by all the means in my power diplomatic action. To second diplomatic action is the verb & object, separated by a seven-word adverb; it is a crying case; everyone will agree to deferring the adverb, & the writer had either no literary ear or some

POSITION OF ADVERBS, 6

grammatical or stylistic fad. The longer the adverb in proportion to the object, the more marked is the offence of interpolating it. But the same mistake is seen, though less glaringly, in the following ten examples; the italicized adverb in each should be removed, sometimes to a place before the verb, sometimes to one after the object :-Are they quite sure that they have interpreted rightly the situation?/I should counsel, then, the schoolboy to take plenty of exercise in the open./A lull of the breeze kept for a time the small boat in the neighbourhood of the brig./ Russia is sweeping the Bukovina clean of Austrians, & north of the Pripet marshes holds firmly Hindenburg's forces./He spoke in a firm voice, marking strongly the syllables, but in tones rather harsh./The only conceivable exception is some great question affecting vitally human liberty & human conscience./The Prime Minister made a couple of speeches on Saturday, but he did not discuss any further the Irish question./The little finny warriors endeavouring to rip up each other with their sharp spines./It is thought that the Allies will regard favourably Belgium's request./Continuation with the university courses would most certainly elevate further the people.

There are conditions that justify the separation, the most obvious being when a lengthy object would keep an adverb that is not suitable for the early position too remote from the verb. One of the extracts below may be adapted to illustrate; if it had run 'would expose to ridicule an authority that, as it is, is not very imposing', the shortness of to ridicule compared with the length of the object would have made that order the best & almost necessary one. But anyone who applies this principle must be careful not to reckon as part of the object words that either do not belong to it at all or are unessential to it; else he will offend the discerning reader's ear as cruelly as the authors now

POSITION OF ADVERBS, 7

to be quoted:-They are now busy issuing blue prints & instructions, & otherwise helping in all sorts of ways our firms to get an efficient grip of the business of tractor-making in a hurry. The object is our firms alone, not that & the rest of the sentence; put it next to helping./ Who are risking every day with intelligence & with shrewdness fortunes on what they believe. Fortunes alone is the object; put it after risking./His make-up, which approached too nearly sheer caricature to be reckoned quite happy. A very odd piece of tit for tat; too nearly divides approached from caricature, & in revenge caricature divides to be reckoned from too nearly; put sheer caricature next to approached./Failure of the Powers to enforce their will as to the Albanian frontier would expose to the ridicule of all the restless elements in East Europe their authority, which, as it is, is not very imposing. There are two differences

from the adaptation made above-first that the adverb has eleven words instead of two, & secondly that the relative clause is not an essential part of the object; their... imposing should be put directly after expose.

7. Separation of preposition & gerund. This hardly needs serious treatment. But here is amusingly shown somebody's terror of separating of & piling by an adverbwhich is no more than an exaggeration of the superstitions dealt with in 3, 4, & 5. To decry the infantry arm for the sake unduly of piling up artillery & what not, is the notion of persons who

8. Heedless misplacings. It would appear from the analysis attempted above that when adverbs are found in wrong positions it is usually due to mistaken ideas of correctness. But now & then it is otherwise, & an example or two of merely careless placing may be given :-Dressings of cotton & linen are reserved only for the most serious cases (for the most serious cases only)./The terms

upon which the British governing classes' have obtained their influence are those upon which it alone may be retained (upon which alone it may)./ As the Monroe doctrine of late years has loomed so largely (has of late years loomed; otherwise it means the recent Monroe doctrine)./Should, too, not our author be considered? (too might go after not, or author, or considered, according to the meaning wanted; but no meaning can justify its present position)./But a work of art that is all form & no emotion (& we doubt whether, in all deference to M. Saint-Saens, such an anomaly did ever or could ever exist) would seem to belong more properly to the sphere of mathematics (the putting of the deference adverb after instead of before whether makes nonsense)./ It has been implied that Germany is a collectivist State, or, if not, that it has at least far advanced in Socialism (is far advanced, but has advanced far).

POSITIVE WORDS IN NEUTRAL PLACES. There are words whose essential function is to express the speaker's strong opinion; specimens are excellent, admirable, remarkable. incredible, disgraceful; to use these in a negative, conditional, or interrogative sense is an offence against idiom too obvious to be common. You cannot stipulate that a thing shall be excellent; you can only pronounce it excellent on trial. To ask for a most delicious peach, a bottle of admirable claret, a profoundly interesting novel, is absurd (unless you are playfully quoting someone else's commendation; Martin Chuzzlewit, for instance, with his experience of remarkable men, could legitimately ask whether Mr Choke was one of the most remarkable men in the country). Examples :-Smoked after dinner, with one or two glasses of excellent brandy, they are equal to Havanas./If they heard of the pecuniary trouble of an excellent scholar or man of letters, they should communicate the fact to