ON THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH AUXILIARY OUGHT: WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO RESTRUCTURING

Abstract

This paper aims to clarify the developmental path of the auxiliary ought by examining the distribution of its restructuring properties in the history of English. Restructuring with ought to was observed until the fourteenth century, which is two centuries earlier than the loss of restructuring in to-infinitive clauses in general. This is accounted for in terms of the auxiliation of ought, which was completed in the fourteenth century, which in turn caused the structural change of to-infinitive clauses of ought.