Cleft Constructions

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Definition

The it-cleft is a syntactic construction that “cleaves” the semantic content of a single clause into two clauses.  For example, the single clause The main character discovered the secret has the synonymous it-cleft form of It was the main character who discovered the secret.

 

Lambrecht (2001) offers a definition of the category of cleft constructions:

A CLEFT CONSTRUCTION  is a complex sentence structure consisting of a matrix clause headed by a copula and a relative or relative-like clause . . . Taken together, the matrix and the relative express a logically simple proposition, which can also be expressed in the form of a single clause without a change in truth conditions.

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Three Types of Cleft Constructions

It-cleft

  • It was the main character who discovered the secret

  • Fue el protagonista quien descubrió el secreto.

Wh-cleft

  • What the main character discovered was the secret.

  • Lo que descubrió el protagonista fue el secreto.

Reverse

wh-cleft

  • The secret is what the main character discovered.

  • El secreto es lo que descubrió el protagonista.

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Constituent Structure of It-clefts

 

It

 

was

 

the main character

 

who/that discovered the secret.

cleft pronoun

+

copula

+

clefted constituent

+

cleft clause

Ø

 

Fue

 

el protagonista

 

quien/el que discubrió el secreto.

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Core Meaning

Gómez-González (2004)

The core meaning of clefts is precisely to set up a relationship of identification . . . in a given context, no matter what other communicative functions they may serve” (p. 97)

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Superficially Similar Constructions

Anaphoric it - Cleft reading vs. non-cleft reading:

  • It’s the country that suits her best.

Non-paraphrastic:

  • It is a commonplace of current literary theory . . .  that discursive formations “wire” the human linguistic and gendered subject.

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It-cleft as Candidate for Contact-induced Change

Silva-Corvalán (1994)

 The permeability of one language’s grammar to another is based on “the existence of superficially (in terms of string order) parallel structures in the languages in contact”