Complex sentence that could be expressed in a simpler way
A cleft sentence is a complex sentence (one having a main clause and a dependent clause) that has a meaning that could be expressed by a simple sentence. Clefts typically put a particular constituent into focus. In spoken language, this focusing is often accompanied by a special intonation.
In English, a cleft sentence can be constructed as follows:
it + conjugated form of to be + X + subordinate clause
where it is a cleft pronoun and X is usually a noun phrase (although it can also be a prepositional phrase, and in some cases an adjectival or adverbial phrase). The focus is on X, or else on the subordinate clause or some element of it. For example:
It's Joey (whom) we're looking for.
It's money that I love.
It was from John that she heard the news.
Furthermore, one might also describe a cleft sentence as inverted. That is to say, it has its dependent clause in front of the main clause. So, rather than:
Example:
We didn't meet her until we arrived at the hotel.
the cleft would be:
It wasn't until we arrived at the hotel that (or when) we met her.
A cleftsentence is a complex sentence (one having a main clause and a dependent clause) that has a meaning that could be expressed by a simple sentence...
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in As John was getting up, he slipped). Cleftsentence structures highlight particular aspects of a sentence and consider the surrounding information...
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que moi. He is older than me. (cf. "I am") in the main clause of a cleftsentence C'est moi que vous cherchez. It's me that you're looking for. Disjunctive...
constitute the lateral boundaries of the pudendal cleft. The pudendal cleft, also known as the vulvar cleft or cleft of Venus (rima vulvae or rima pudendi in Latin)...
bee. Another way is through a cleftsentence where the main clause is demoted to be a complement clause of a copula sentence with a dummy subject such as...
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The cleft chin murder was a killing which occurred as part of a string of crimes during 1944, and was mentioned in George Orwell's essay "Decline of the...
former, or wider than the labia majora, thus protruding in the pudendal cleft and making the term minora (Latin for smaller) essentially inapplicable...
preposition to, the underlined adjunct VP has John as its predicand. In cleftsentences such as It's you who was right, the subject is the dummy pronoun it...
word and nchiyáni? '(is) what?', since such questions are phrased as a cleftsentence or relative clause, the verb has its relative-clause intonation: wákhálá...
use of the term split infinitive on record dates from 1890. The now rare cleft infinitive is almost as old, attested from 1893; in the 1890s it was briefly...
case, clefting is used to shift the focus of the sentence to the subject, the chicken turtle. Front focus: Placing at the start (front) of a sentence information...
je t'ai déjà vu, moi. », "You, I have seen you before, I have." in cleftsentences: « C'est toi qui as tort », "It is you who are wrong." lit. "It is...
Publication of the Faculty of Letters, pp. 8:87-94 "The Syntax of CleftSentences in Berber" (1986b), in co-authorship with F.Sadiqi, Studies of Language...
him breathing on her neck.) As a predicative expression in pseudo-cleftsentences of the following type: What I did was tie the rope to the beam. What...
abnormality of the throat. It occurs in children with a history of cleft palate or submucous cleft, who have short or otherwise abnormal vela. Velopharyngeal...
assistant, Mengele focused on the genetic factors that result in a cleft lip and palate, or a cleft chin. His thesis on the subject earned him a cum laude doctorate...
IC-analysis for a given sentence is arrived at usually by way of constituency tests. Constituency tests (e.g. topicalization, clefting, pseudoclefting, pro-form...
billed as "Stacy Keach." The younger Keach was born with a cleft lip and a partial cleft of the hard palate, and he underwent numerous operations as...
very common use of relative clauses is in cleftsentences. The main verb of the corresponding unclefted sentence is replaced by a relative clause and copula...
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