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I’m trying to get a better grasp of the original grammatical function of 하다 in the construction -어야 하다, which we usually simplify as “you have to do X.”

From what I understand, -어야 on its own is a connective ending that marks the preceding action as a necessary condition for what follows. So my interpretation is that when 하다 appears after -어야, it might originally have stood in for an omitted or general result clause, something like “only if you do X, then Y will happen,” with Y left implicit.

In other words, I'd like to know if (1) 하다 originally was a light verb standing in for an omitted result clause, and (2) through grammaticalization, the whole -어야 하다 chunk was reanalyzed as an obligation marker.

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Q1. Was 하다 originally a light verb standing in for an omitted result clause (Y)?

A1. No. It’s better analyzed as the hosting verb in a single predicate complex, where -어야 contributes conditional necessity and 하다/되다 realize it as obligation.

Q2. Was -어야 하다 reanalyzed via grammaticalization as an obligation marker?

A2. Yes. The sequence -어야 + 하다/되다 has been reanalyzed as a fixed obligation marker in contemporary Korean.

Your intuition that “x어야 하다 ≈ should (do) x” (rather than “x … so that Y happens”) is right on target.

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