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Re:The Art of Punctuation by kevin_thibedeau on Tuesday September 24, 2019 @05:17PM (#21064727)
“Hopefully, the professor will be able to seriously take the work on which I am presently engaged, which is, I believe, rather unique.”

"Hopefully" modifies "be" and is relocated to reflect colloquial speech patterns. Banning split infinitives is a legacy of trying to bend English to Latin grammar rules. "Presently" is a synonym of "Currently".

Looks like a perfectly cromulent sentence to me.

Re:The Art of Punctuation by yongjik on Wednesday September 25, 2019 @04:53PM (#21075331)
To me, "to seriously take" sounds strange not because it's split infinitive (there's nothing wrong with that), but "seriously" is not just an ordinary adverb here: it's a complement of the verb _take_. "To take the work seriously" is a very different thing from "to take the work," while "to engage the work seriously" is basically the same as "to engage the work," except more seriously.

And I don't think "seriously" (or a similar adverb), when used as a complement of "take," could just move around freely. Just like you can't say "I away chased the dog."

* And, while we're at it, it's a bad idea to take seriously (haha) anyone who thinks split infinitives are wrong. You can find tons of amusing writings by actual linguists here: https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/index.php?s=Split+infi...

(Spoiler alert: they think the rule is BS.)

Re:The Art of Punctuation by spdustin on Wednesday September 25, 2019 @04:41PM (#21075178)
When used in the present tense, presently is indeed a synonym of currently. When used in the future tense—e.g., “I will be leaving presently”—it means “shortly,” since “currently” isn’t compatible with the future tense.