The aim of this research is to find out why some matrix verbs are no longer complemented by the two types of infinitive clauses as it is the case in Elizabethan English . At that time (when Shakespeare was writing ), the same matrix verb triggers the two types of infinitive clauses as its complex transitive complementation .Such free variation is not possible in Present –Day English . In this corpus – based study , it is shown that the choice of the form of the infinitive clause is not free; there are certain syntactic ,sem- antic constraints that dete, - infinitive.

Abstract In this paper, the researcher accounts for two different points of view concerning the tense of infinitive clauses in English language when functioning as verb complementation, and explains their bases and justifications. Some grammarians postulate that infinitive clauses complementation are tensed clauses, having the feature  tense , since they, sometimes, indicate time relations different from that of the matrix clause, while most grammarians and linguists say that infinitive clauses, in their two types- 'to'- infinitives and bare infinitives, are tenseless clauses; they are nonfinite clauses. Grammarians state that infinitive clauses functioning as verb complementation are tensed clauses due to the presence of some temp