CLEFT AND QUESTION

FORMATION
 CLEFT CONSTRUCTION
• A cleft is a construction in which some elements in a sentence are
moved from its normal position (in situ) into a separate clause to
give it a greater emphasis.
• A cleft sentence is a sentence that is cleft/split so as to put focus
on one part of it.
• The cleft sentence is introduced by it, which is followed by a
verbal phrase whose main verb is generally be (copula). The
focused element comes next, and the rest of the sentence is
introduced by a relative pronoun, a relative determiner or
relative adverb.
CLEFT CONSTRUCTION
• The cleft construction in Chichewa is comparable to that in
English. It involves the copula ndi or the negative copula sı
that marks the focus element, then followed by the relative
marker -mene, appropriately marked for agreement with the
focused element. The relative marker heads a relative clause.
Consider the following

• Mary anapita ku msika (ndani anapita kumsika?)

• Ndi Mary amene anapita ku msika
• Si Mary amene anapita ku msika
CLEFT CONSTRUCTION

• Ndi anyan´ı a´m´ısa´la a-mene´ a-kuphwany-a´

chipanda. (cleft)
‘It’s the mad baboons that are smashing the calabash.’

• S´ı chikho chi-me´n´e anyan´ı a´ m´ısala a-ku-

phwany-a. (Cleft)
‘It’s not a gourd that the mad baboons are smashing.’
Clefts and Question constructions

• Relative clauses in Chichewa have relevance to question formation.

• Question formation does not have to invoke wh-movement.
• Question formation is in situ and, where there is apparent
movement, it involves a cleft construction. This may be exemplified
by the following:
• Mkango ukusautsa alenje (content).
• Mkang´o u-ku-sauts-a yani? (In situ)
‘Who is the lion bothering?’

• Kod´i ndi yani a-me´n´e mka´ng´o u´-k´u-(mu´)-s´auts-a? (cleft)

• ‘Who is it that the lion is bothering?’
Clefts and Question constructions

Anyan´ı a´m´ısala a-ku-ch´ı-pwa´ny-a chipanda ch´a

alenje
‘The mad baboons are smashing the calabash of the hunters’

X: Kod´ı anyan´ı a´ m´ısala a-ku-phwa´ny-´a chiya´ni? (in situ)

The mad baboons are smashing what?

Y: Kod´ı ndi chiya´ni chi-m´ene´ anyani a´ m´ısala a-ku´-(chı)-

phwa´ny-a? (cleft)
‘What is it that the mad baboons are smashing?’
Clefts and Question constructions

• In (X), the object is questioned in situ. In (Y), where there

appears to be movement, the question formation involves a
cleft construction. This, in turn, has a relative construction.
The verb can have an incorporated object argument,
obviating/avoiding the need for wh-movement.
• So when the subject NP is the focused element, there are two
strategies involved in the formation of questions
• 1. In-situ question formation
• Anyani a misala akuphwanya maungu
• Kodi ndani akuphwanya maungu?
• By looking at the position of the question word (initial) and also the
tone marking on the verb
• This cannot be the case with an OM. Hence, this indicates that the
OM is a grammatical agreement marker.
• 2. By the SM being an incorporated pronoun and allowing the use of
the cleft construction in question formation
• Kodi ndi ndani amene akuphwanya maungu?
• Kodi ndani akuphwanya maungu
• Even though the –mene is missing between ndani and akuphwanya,
the tone marking shows that it is a relative construction.
• The question literally means, ‘it is who that is smashing pumpkins.’
• Hence the SM marker is acting as a marker of grammatical agreement
and an incorporated pronoun.