Split Infinitives and the Category of to

The Norse / Middle English properties of the previous chapter seem, at least at first glance, to be North Germanic innovations, whose West Germanic (Old English) counterparts are closer to the presumed grammar of Indo-European. For the construction studied in this chapter, in contrast, the pre-verbal infinitival marker, the West Germanic variant is probably the more innovative, in that the corresponding morphemes of NorseNorse and Middle English are still free morphemes, like their Proto-Germanic predecessor. But however one conceptualizes the issue of which construction is innovative and which conservative, we will see that there is no doubt about either the West Germanic nature of Old English to or the North Germanic behavior of Middle EnglishMiddle English to.