Study Unit 12

CLEFT AND PSEUDO-CLEFT SENTENCES

Relative clauses are also obligatory constituents of complex sentences, called cleft sentences.

12. 1. Cleft sentences are emphatic variants of neutral statements .

Cleft sentences are used by speakers who may wish, at a given point in their discourse, to focus
attention on certain elements of the sentence.

Frank liked [NP German beer]. (basic sentence, neutral statement)

  Su V DO
a. It was [NP German beer] that Frank liked. (It-cleft)
b. What he liked was [NP German beer]. (Pseudo-/Wh-cleft)
c. [NP German beer] was what he liked. (Reverse wh-cleft)
 
In these examples, the NP German beer is emphasised in three types of complex sentences,
which are the result of splitting the basic sentence/ neutral statement. Thus, a cleft sentence
cleaves (splits or divides) a sentence into two parts in order to emphasise one of the parts/
constituents.

Cleft sentences are used by speakers who may wish, at a given point in their discourse, to focus
listeners' attention on certain elements of the sentence.

Types of clefts
There are two main types of cleft constructions: it-clefts and pseudo-clefts.

12.2. It-clefts.

The structure.

Mike took Sally to the party on Sunday. (neutral statement)

  Su DO AM of place AM of time

If we want to emphasise the subject, then we can rearrange the constituents to produce an
emphatic statement, a prototypical it-cleft, with the syntactic configuration:
 
It was Mike [RC who took Sally to the party]. (emphatic statement)

expletive + copulative + emphasised + relative clause

pron be constituent
gramm SU copulative predicative attribute
predication

It-cleft sentences involve the rearrangement of the constituents of a simple declarative sentence
in such a way as to emphasise a certain constituent.

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It-clefts have a fixed, rigid structure (always the same arrangement).

What kind of constituent can be emphasised?

a. It was Mike [who took Sally to the party].

focus (emphasis on the subject)
b. It was Sally [that Mike took to the party].
focus (emphasis on the DO)
c. It was on Sunday [that Mike took Sally to the party].
focus (emphasis on the AM of time)
d. It was to the party [that Marc took Sally on Sunday].
focus (emphasis on the AM of place)

The constituent to be emphasised, also called the focused constituent, may have various
syntactic functions in the basic sentence: Su, Object (DO, IO, PO), Adverbial Modifier of all
types.

The types of phrases that occur as focused constituent.

It is [NP John] who came first. (highlighted NP)

It was [PP with great pleasure] that I helped them. (highlighted PP )
It's not [AdvP so long ago] that they started going out. (highlighted AdvP)
It was [ICC in order to get a better paid job] that she started to apply.
(highlighted non-finite clause/ infinitival clause, adverbial clause of purpose)
It's [when her heart starts beating crazily] that she prefers to lie down.
(highlighted finite clause, adverbial clause of time)

The focused constituent may be a phrase (NP, PP, AP, AdvP) or a whole clause: finite (adverbial
clauses) or non-finite (ICC):

12.3 Pseudo-clefts.
There are three types of pseudo-cleft constructions.

12.3.1. Wh-clefts.
Structure.
Pseudo-cleft sentences also have a fixed, rigid structure. There are three types of pseudo-clefts
with similar structure, introduced by different elements.
 
Wh-cleft sentences are of two types: basic wh-cleft.and reversed wh-cleft, the basic one being the
most commonly used:
Tom saw Jane [PP in front of the bank]. (neutral statement)
  Su DO AM of place

[RC Where Tom saw Jane] was in front of the bank. (basic wh-cleft)
relative clause + be + focused constituent.
 
In front of the bank is [RC where Tom saw Jane]. (reversed wh-cleft)
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 focused constituent + be + relative clause

This class of pseudo-clefts includes identifying constructions with a relative clause introduced by
a relative pronoun (what, who) or an adverb (where, when, why or how):
 
They [VP built a treehouse].
[RC What they did] was (to) build a treehouse.
 
They built a treehouse [ PP in the big oak tree overlooking the river]. – AM of place
[RC Where they did it] was in the big oak tree overlooking the river.
 
They built a house [ PP by first erecting a platform in the tree]. – AM of manner
[RC How they did it] was by first erecting a platform in the tree.
 
They built a treehouse [ PP in the spring, before the leaves grew too much]. – AM of
time
[RC When they did it] was in the spring, before the leaves grew too much.

12.3.2. Th-clefts Structure.

Tom saw Jane in front of the bank in the evening.
SU DO AM of place AM of time
The person [RC who saw Jane in front of the bank] was Tom.
Antecedent dependent RC

The place [RC where Tom saw Jane] was in front of the bank.
…….
The moment [RC when Tom saw Jane] was in the evening.
………
The reason [RC why they did it] was because the children had no playground.
……
The + [+abstract] noun + relative clause + be + emphasised constituent

Th-clefts start with the + noun (thing, person, place, matter, issue, time, reason, way, etc.;
semantically very general) followed by a RC introduced by a relative pronoun (who, what)
/adverb (when, where) + copulative BE+ the emphasizes/focused constituent.

12.3.3. All-clefts

All-clefts are constructions with the relative clause headed by all, as in:

He wanted a hamburger. (neutral statement)

All [RC he wanted for his lunch] was a hamburger. (emphatic statement)
all + relative clause + be + emphasised constituent

She [VP waved good-bye at me].

All she did was wave good-bye at me.

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 infinitive

The focused constituent can be: a NP or a VP (the lexical verb do is used when a VP is
emphasized and it indicates the tense – present or past).

Identify the focused constituent and give the basic neutral statement:
He saves my life – All he does is save my life.
He saved my life.- All he did was save my life.
He has saved my life. – All he has done is save my life
He will save my life. All he will do is save my life.

He was my friend. - All he did was be my friend.

He will be my teacher. – All he will do is be my teacher.

The receptionist asked my name and gave me a room. - All the receptionist did was ask
my name and give me a room.
I opened the door and entered the room. – All I did was open the door and enter the room.

Conclusion
Emphatic effects occur:
- when the conventional or so-called normal word order is changed (split and rearrange the
sentence);
- when the constituent carrying focused information is moved to different positions within
the sentence.

a. It was [NP German beer] [RC that Frank liked]. (It-cleft)

emphasized constituent predicative
a. [RC What he liked] was [NP German beer]. (basic wh-cleft)
emphasized constituent predicative
a. [NP German beer] was [RC what he liked]. (reversed wh-cleft)
emphasized constituent subject

The focused constituent may be promoted to:

- predicative position in the it-cleft,
- predicative position in the basic pseudo-cleft (wh-cleft),
- subject position in a reversed pseudo-cleft (wh-cleft).

Bibliography

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Huddleston, R. & G. Pullum. 2002. The Cambridge grammar of the English language. Cambridge
University Press.
Quirk R., S. Greenbaum, G. Leech, J. Svartvik. 1985. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English
Language. Longman, Harlow.