A constructional approach to clefts

Abstract

In this article I will argue that clefts differ in more than simply their information structure from their noncleft counterparts. Clefts are constructions in their own right, whose grammatical features convey specific representational semantics. I will focus on the two main coded relations in cleft constructions, the one expressed by the matrix clause and the anaphoric relation between the complement of the matrix clause and the relative clause. I will indicate in which ways these have not been described satisfactorily in the literature so far and will propose an alternative description. The different matrix clauses of clefts are specific subtypes of identifying, existential, and possessive clauses, which all impose a specific quantificational value on their complement: they express exhaustive specification of a set, enumeration, or cardinal quantification of instances. The relative clause takes this specifying, enumerating, or cardinally measured complement as antecedent and incorporates it in a value-variable relation. In this way, I will argue, the different types of clefts, viz. it clefts, there clefts, and possessive clefts, can be given an integrated semantic description.

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