Past temporal reference of used to
For my first qualifying paper, I looked at the formal decomposition of the `past habitual' used to. On the past temporal reference side, I argued that `used to' encodes its backshifting semantics via an aspectual operator, rather than past tense. My motivation for arguing in favor of an aspectual operator to account for the past temporal reference property (rather than tense) is because, unlike the simple past form, used to always gives rise to backshifted shifted readings. For instance, in Sequence of Tense (SoT) examples---which famously allow both a simultaneous and backshifted reading when both the matrix and embedded tense are past (1)---used to only allows the backshifted reading (2).
(1) Jeff said that Allegra was annoying (backshifted-- Jeff: Allegra was annoying; simultaneous-- Jeff: Allegra is annoying)
(2) Jeff said that Allegra used to be annoying (backshifted-- Jeff: Allegra was annoying; #simultaneous-- Jeff: Allegra is annoying)
I've presented this work at the 2026 LSA meeting. (Handout: Encoding past temporal reference in `used to')
Habituality of used to
On the habitual side, used to also exhibits some interesting properties not found in any other English form that expresses habituality. For instance, used to has the tendency to block episodic S-level readings (3a), while allowing both habitual S-level (4a) and I-level readings (5a).
(3) Context: John once had a nasty cold that lasted for 3 weeks
(3a) #John used to be sick (3b) John was sick
(4) Context: John had a tendency to catch a cold in the wintertime
(4a) John used to be sick (4b) John was sick
(5) Context: For years, John had a chronic illness.
(5a) John used to be sick (5b) John was sick