Cleft Sentences & Emphasising Linguistic Devices

What is a cleft sentence?

A cleft sentence is a complex sentence (main clause + dependent clause) that has a meaning that
could be expressed by a simple sentence. We use them to create emphasis by drawing attention
to a particular aspect of the sentence.  Most cleft sentences are constructed by using a relative
pronoun.
Types of cleft sentences
What follows is a list of the most common types of cleft sentences:

All/The only (thing)-cleft

Your happiness interests me. →  The only thing that interests me is your happiness.
I think about you. →  All (that)  I think about is you.
Wh-cleft
He saw your dad. → (The person)  whom he saw was your dad. 
He wanted to buy a Fiat.  → What he wanted to buy was a Fiat. /  What  he wanted was to buy a
Fiat.
Reversed Wh-cleft
I used to live in that house. → That house is  where I used to live. / That house is the one in
which  I used to live.
I read the Da Vinci Code last summer. → The Da Vinci Code is  what I read last summer.
On hot days we turn the AC.  → Turning on the AC is what  we do on hot days. 
It+to be-cleft
You broke the window.  → It  was you who broke the window.
A gun shot has ended John’s life.  → It  has been a gunshot that has ended John’s life. 
Note: with most cleft sentences, you can choose to emphasise the subject or the object of the
original sentence.
Example:  I used to live in a house
Subject:  It was me who  used to live in a house.  (not someone else)
Object:  It was a house where I used to live.  (not a flat)
Other ways of emphasising
Since cleft sentences are mainly used to emphasise a particular aspect or element of a sentence,
there are other linguistic devices to give emphasis to some word or element.
Stressing the verb or auxiliary verbs
Stressing the auxiliary verb in a sentence can help to show determination, to convince or to
contradict someone.

You will  be back before twelve, or else.

– I don’t think you’re capable of cheating.
– I am capable, you’ll see.
In the present simple or past simple we use do or did, except with the verb “to be”:
– You didn’t do the washing up, did you?.
– I did  wash up, I swear.
So / such
I’m  so  hungry  (that) I could eat a whole cow by myself.
She’s such a beautiful woman!
Learn to use so and such properly.
Exaggerated vocabulary
I’m  starved to death!
He’s completely hammered! ( = extremely drunk)
Intensifying adverbs
The film was extremely  amusing. 
That’s  utterly  ridiculous!
Simile
It’s as cold as ice. 
It’s hot as hell!
Questions or negatives with “on earth”, “in the world”, “in creation”
Who  on earth  would go out in this cold?
There’s nothing in the world  as pleasant as a warm bath. 
Intonation
You can decide to stress a particular element in a sentence to convey a specific meaning.

Sean loves to drink coffee in the mornings. (not someone else)

Sean  loves  to drink coffee in the mornings. (not like or hate)
Sean loves  to drink  coffee in the mornings. (not to prepare it)
Sean loves to drink coffee in the mornings. (not milk or tea)
Sean loves to drink coffee in the mornings. (not in the afternoons)

In English grammar, a cleft is a construction in which some element in a sentence is moved from its
normal position into a separate clause to give it greater emphasis. A cleft is also known as a cleft
sentence, a cleft construction, and a cleft clause.

"A cleft sentence is a sentence that is cleft (split) so as to put the focus on one part of it. The cleft
sentence is introduced by it, which is followed by a verb phrase whose main verb is generally be.
The focused part comes next, and then the rest of the sentence is introduced by a relative pronoun,
relative determiner, or relative adverb. If we take the sentence Tom felt a sharp pain after lunch, two
possible cleft sentences formed from it are It was Tom who felt a sharp pain after lunch and It was
after lunch that Tom felt a sharp pain."

Take, for example, the simple declarative sentence, "Jerry went to the movie yesterday." If you
would want to emphasize one element or another, the sentence could be rewritten in several
different ways:

 It was Jerry who went to the movie yesterday.

 It was to the movie that Jerry went yesterday.
 It was yesterday that Jerry went to the movie. 

English has many different varieties of cleft constructions, but the two major types are it-
clefts and wh-clefts. Wh- clefts use "wh" words, which is most often "what" in the construction.
However, why, where, how, etc. are also possibilities.

Examples and Observations

It-Clefts

 It was only last month that I decided to go back to school.

 "It was my father who sent Dyer out to proselyte. It was my father who had the blue-ice eye
and the beard of gold."
  "It was Roosevelt who impetuously blurted out the 'unconditional surrender' ultimatum at a
press conference in Casablanca, to the surprise of Winston Churchill, who was sitting at his
side and who had no alternative but to nod approval."

Wh-Clefts

 "What I needed was a weapon. Other people, hitchhikers, told me they always carried a
little something, a knife or a can of Mace, and I'd laughed, thinking there was no greater
weapon than the human mind. You idiot."
 "Strange, but what I really wanted was a dad who would come down to the police station,
yell his head off, and then take me home to talk about what happened, to come up with a
new plan for how I'd act in the future, etc. All the other guys had that. But not me. My dad
left me alone in jail for the night."