Wh-cleft

Question

Hi,I'm confused about something.I want to listen to soothing music to ease into sleep.When you convert this basic version into a wh-cleft(pseudo-cleft) sentence, which of the following versions is(are) correct?A: What I want to do is to listen to soothing music to ease into sleep.B: What I want to do is listen to soothing music to ease into sleep.C: What I want is to listen to soothing music to ease into sleep.D: What I want to do is listening to soothing music to ease into sleep.E: What I want is listening to soothing music to ease into sleep.(I'm pretty sure this is wrong)Could someone help me on this?  I'd really appreciate it.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

A: What I want to do is to listen to soothing music to ease into sleep. OK.
B: What I want to do is listen to soothing music to ease into sleep. OK.
C: What I want is to listen to soothing music to ease into sleep. OK.
D: What I want to do is listening to soothing music to ease into sleep. No.
E: What I want is listening to soothing music to ease into sleep. No.

A: do - to listen
B: do - listen

A and B illustrate that after a what-cleft with do you can have an infinitive with or without 'to'.

C illustrates that the material after the linking verb continues the construction in the what clause: want to listen. want listening is impossible; E is therefore impossible.

D can be modified to illustrate that after a what-cleft with doing you have an -ing form.

What I want to be doing is listening to soothing music to ease into sleep.

CJ

Jooney · Answer

Thank you for your answer, CJ. I'm still a little confused about something, though. In another post on "wh-cleft", you said the following sentences were fine.

ex) Reading a boring book is what you want to do to ease into sleep.
ex) Listening to soothing music is what you want to do to ease into sleep.

So a gerundive construction becomes possible in the subject position in case of a reversed wh-cleft sentence? How about putting an infinitival clause in that position?

ex) To read a boring book is what you want to do to ease into sleep.
ex) To listen to soothing music is what you want to do to ease into sleep.

And lastly, could you explain what kind of "one" it is in the following sentence?

Until he was arrested in September, Sam Eshaghoff seemed like the perfect kid. At New York's Great Neck North High School, he was a top student, vice president of the business club and a varsity athlete, but what may have been his greatest talent was the one that got him in trouble: his ability to ace standardized tests, which was how he began a double life as a con man.

Is that "one" the same as the "one" in "The fish isn't big as the one I caught". Could you give me some hints? I'd appreciate your help.

CalifJim · Answer

jooneySo a gerundive construction becomes possible in the subject position

You'll find that the gerund is preferred over the infinitive as the subject; the infinitive is preferred (where possible) over the gerund later in the sentence. Your examples with the infinitive in subject position are less idiomatic, but not wrong.

jooneyIs that "one" the same as the "one" in "The fish isn't big as the one I caught".

Yes. Substitute 'fish' here and 'talent' in the other example.

The fish isn't as big as the fish I caught.
What may have been his greatest talent was the talent that got him in trouble.

CJ

Jooney · Answer

Thank you very much for your answers, CJ.

I have one final question. As far as I know "one" is used to refer back to the noun previously mentioned. But in the uncleft version, there doesn't seem to be a noun it can refer back to. I'm a little confused.

uncleft version: The one that got him in trouble may have been his great talent.

CalifJim · Answer

There's no rule that says you can't pronomialize where you want to after you have transformed the sentence to the final form you want it in.

The talent that got him in trouble may have been his greatest talent.

Supposing this is the final form you want, you can now pronomialize with:

The talent that got him in trouble may have been his greatest one.
_____

Supposing it's not the final form, you can now make it a cleft sentence:

What may have been his greatest talent was the talent that got him in trouble.

And then pronomialize:

What may have been his greatest talent was the one that got him in trouble.

The insertion of the pronoun 'one' can only occur after the other transformations have been performed.
___________________________

Some usage in English, like the use of the pronoun 'one', depends on word order, so when you use a transformation like uncleft to cleft, which changes word order, obviously what usage is possible in one version is not necessarily the same usage that is possible in the other version.

______________________

The same can happen with other transformations. For example, when you have a proper noun and a pronoun that refers to it, the proper noun typically comes first. Changing the order of the clauses may trigger a change in the clause contents, thus:

When Jack heard the noise, he was startled.

If you want to change the order of the clauses, this does not become:

He was startled when Jack heard the noise.

It becomes:

Jack was startled when he heard the noise.

(Which clause gets the proper noun and which clause gets the pronoun switches.)

CJ

Jooney · Answer

I see.  Thank you very much for the crystal clear explanations! <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' alt='Emotion: smile'/>

Wh-cleft

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