the split-infinitives thing came from the idea that infinitives couldn't be split in Latin, so they shouldn't be split in English. Never mind that English is not a Romance language, Latin was seen as the "proper" model.
The "rules" came from prescriptive grammarians with little regard for the natural or logical structure of the language.
I studied for the Cambridge University "English Proficiency" examination, which involved a fair amount of grammar, and I never encountered these "rules of American English". We have met the enemy, and it is us — Pogo
Over there: He said, "Put the period outside the quotation marks".
Over here: He said, "Put the period inside the quotation marks." "Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.
One thing where I constantly change between US and British and can't memorise which is which is the s/z thing -- memorize/memorise etc. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Never mind that infinitives in Latin don't split because they are single words, whereas in English they consist of two words.
Well, precisely. It was an absurd "rule," one that was always controversial, and one that has been rightfully discarded. I'm not surprised you haven't run into it because I believe the "debate" over the rule had died off by the late '60s.
It is, however, not actually a matter of British or American usage. The "rule" was on both sides of the pond. (I will note that the wiki article indicates that the "Latin argument" that I cited above may be "folklore," which wouldn't surprise me, since it never made the slightest sense to me.....)
Migeru:
I have a theory that they were adopted as shibboleths in order to make social class more easily determined.
There is probably something to that.
