The purpose of this paper is to examine what grammatical functions and meanings the for-to-Ⅴ construction possessed in the early Middle English religious prose Holy Maidenhood (original title: Hali Meidhad). It has been claimed that the for-to-Ⅴ construction arose in the early Middle English period. From the 19 examples containing for-to-Ⅴ sequences in Holy Maidenhood, it is found that they could have diverse grammatical functions such as subject, complement, and adjunct, and various meanings other than `purpose.` These findings are against Jespersen`s (1909-49, Ⅴ) and Mustanoja`s (1960) arguments that the for-to-Ⅴ construction originally expressed `purpose.`

• 김혜리 | Hye Ree Kim