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Adonica86 Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

It clefts and Wh clefts

I was just wondering if it-clefts and Wh-clefts always have the same sentencen pattern:

Subject - Verb - Subject Predicative?
  

Top answer

Adonica86 I was just wondering if it-clefts and Wh-clefts always have the same sentencen pattern:Subject - Verb - Subject Predicative? That's the typical structure. The foregrounded information in a cleft construction functions as a complement of the verb ' be ' in its specifying sense: "It was a red wool sweater that I bought " [it-cleft, "It" is subject] "What I bought was a red wool sweater " [pseudo-cleft, "What I bought" is subject] BillJ

— BillJ

  • Adonica86 I was just wondering if it-clefts and Wh-clefts always have the same sentencen pattern:Subject - Verb - Subject Predicative?
  • That's the typical structure.
  • The foregrounded information in a cleft construction functions as a complement of the verb ' be ' in its specifying sense: "It was a red wool sweater that I bought " [it-cleft, "It" is subject] "What I bought was a red wool sweater " [pseudo-cleft, "What I bought" is subject] BillJ
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4 Answers
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Adonica86I was just wondering if it-clefts and Wh-clefts always have the same sentencen pattern:Subject - Verb - Subject Predicative?
That's the typical structure. The foregrounded information in a cleft construction functions as a complement of the verb 'be' in its specifying sense:

"It was a red wool sweater that I bought
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Adonica86I was just wondering if it-clefts and Wh-clefts always have the same sentencen pattern:
Subject - Verb - Subject Predicative?
What about this: John insisted on buying the house, but Mary thought it would cost too much. Here, 'it' refers to previously introduced 'buying'. So, the pattern seems to be: subject (buying) + subject (it) + verb (w
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Anonymous
Adonica86I was just wondering if it-clefts and Wh-clefts always have the same sentencen pattern:Subject - Verb - Subject Predicative?
What about this: John insisted on buying the house, but Mary thought it would cost too much. Here, 'it' refers to previously introduced 'buying'. So, the pattern seems to be: subject (buying) +
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It wasn`t me who asked the second question with the example.... Thanx Bill, you always come to my rescue...
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