Abstract
This thesis investigates the grammatical nature of the used to construction to gain perspective on a longstanding controversy regarding how used to is to be spelled under circumstances of DO-support—with the d or without it. ESL textbooks have long given learners contradictory advice on how to handle used to in the context of DO-support. This paper examines the used to construction in Present-Day English and in historical usage. The well-established status of habitual USE as a raising verb in today’s English is found to be a development that occurred in the 1800s. It is argued that, prior to that time, habitual USE was not a raising verb; the used to construction carried middle-voice meaning relating to an early causative usage of habitual USE. It is further argued that the word used in the present-day used to construction is not a past-tense form but a past participle, the complement of a deleted auxiliary (BE) in underlying structure. The [BE used to VP] construction was an adjectival passive that faded into obsolescence around the time that habitual USE became a raising verb.