The cleft and the infinitive adjunct
To defeat terror it’s vital that politicians have full view of the facts, even if they are inconvenient for the government. (The Guardian.)
Is the cleft it’s vital that politicians have full view of the facts a main clause andTo defeat terror an adjunct (a non-finite infinitive clause) in the sentence above?
Top answer
anonymous Is the cleft it’s vital that politicians have full view of the facts a main clause That clause is the main clause, but it's not a cleft sentence. It's just a case of a dummy 'it', which is a matter of rearranging elements in a sentence whose subject is a that -clause. That politicians have (a) full view of the facts is vital becomes It is vital that politicians have (a) full view of the facts .
- anonymous Is the cleft it’s vital that politicians have full view of the facts a main clause That clause is the main clause, but it's not a cleft sentence.
- It's just a case of a dummy 'it', which is a matter of rearranging elements in a sentence whose subject is a that -clause.
- That politicians have (a) full view of the facts is vital becomes It is vital that politicians have (a) full view of the facts .
- Here's a possible cleft construction: It is politicians who must have (a) full view of the facts.
- anonymous andTo defeat terror an adjunct (a non-finite infinitive clause) Yes.
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anonymousIs the cleft it’s vital that politicians have full view of the facts a main clause
That clause is the main clause, but it's not a cleft sentence. It's just a case of a dummy 'it', which is a matter of rearranging elements in a sentence whose subject is a that-clause.
That politicians have (a) full view of the facts is vital
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