Cover not available
Article published In:
The dynamicity of communication below, around and above the clause
Edited by Ben Clarke and Jorge Arús-Hita
[English Text Construction 9:1] 2016
► pp. 115–142

Specificational there-clefts

Functional structure and information structure

In this article we present functional-structural and information structure arguments for recognizing specificational there-clefts, i.e. clefts that specify a value for a variable. We distinguish two types which hinge on whether the matrix is a listing or a canonical existential. Listing there-clefts enumerate one or more instances as corresponding to the variable, e.g. You are quite right David, it was engineered, seems there’s only me and you who can see this. Quantifying there-clefts indicate the quantity of instantiation of the variable, e.g. Look at the shape of it. There’s only one thing that’s that shape.

Keywords: it-cleft, information structure, functional structure, specificational there-cleft, presentationaleventive there-cleft
Published online: 30 June 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/etc.9.1.07dav
References (41)
Bicler, Chris & Kristin Davidse
2010 It-clefts in casual conversational English: The weakening of their specificational meaning. In Distinctions in English Grammar. Offered to Renaat Declerck, Bert Cappelle & Naoaki Wada (eds). Tokyo: Kaitakusha, 260–277.Google Scholar
Budts, Sara, Michelle Peeters & Elisah Van Lommel
2013 Existential there-clefts revisited. Unpublished term paper. University of Leuven.
Carlson, Greg
1978 Reference to Kinds in English. Bloomington: Indiana University Linguistics Club.Google Scholar
Chierchia, Gennaro & Sally McConnell-Ginet
2000 Meaning and Grammar: An Introduction to Semantics. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Collins, Peter
1991 Cleft and Pseudo-cleft Constructions in English. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1992 Cleft existentials in English. Language Sciences 141: 419–433. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2006 It-clefts and wh-clefts: Prosody and pragmatics. Journal of Pragmatics 381: 1706–1720. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Crystal, David
1969 Prosodic Systems and Intonation in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Davidse, Kristin
1992 Existential constructions: A systemic perspective. Leuvense Bijdragen 811: 71–99.Google Scholar
1999a Are there sentences that can be analyzed as there-clefts? In Thinking English Grammar: To Honour Xavier Dekeyser, Professor Emeritus, Guy Tops, Betty Devriendt & Steven Geukens (eds). Leuven: Peeters, 177–193.Google Scholar
1999b The semantics of cardinal versus enumerative existential constructions. Cognitive Linguistics 101: 203–250.Google Scholar
2000 A constructional approach to clefts. Linguistics 381: 1101–1131. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2004 The interaction of quantification and identification in English determiners. In Language, Culture and Mind. CSDL 2002, Michel Achard & Suzanne Kemmer (eds). Stanford: CSLI Publications, 507–533.Google Scholar
Davidse, Kristin & Ditte Kimps
2014 Distinguishing and subclassifying there-clefts. Paper presented at ICAME 351. Nottingham, 29 April–4 May 2014.
Declerck, Renaat
1984 The pragmatics of it-clefts and wh-clefts. Lingua 641: 251–289. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Delin, Judy
1992 Properties of it-cleft presupposition. Journal of Semantics 91: 289–306. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gentens, Caroline
2015 The discursive status of extraposed object clauses. Leuven Working Papers in Linguistics 221. [URL] (Last accessed on 24 December 2015).
Halliday, M.A.K
1967a Notes on transitivity and theme in English 2. Journal of Linguistics 31: 199–244. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1967b Intonation and Grammar in British English. The Hague: Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1994 An Introduction to Functional Grammar, 2nd edition. London: Arnold.Google Scholar
Halliday, M.A.K. & Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen
2004 An Introduction to Functional Grammar, 3rd edition. London: Arnold.Google Scholar
Halliday, M.A.K. & Ruqaiya Hasan
1976 Cohesion in English. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Halliday, M.A.K. & William Greaves
2008 Intonation in the Grammar of English. London: Equinox.Google Scholar
Hedberg, Nancy
2000 The referential status of clefts. Language 761: 891–920. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Higgins, Francis
1973 The Pseudo-cleft Construction in English. Ph.D. dissertation, MIT.
Huddleston, Rodney
1984 Introduction to the Grammar of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Huddleston, Rodney & Geoffrey Pullum
2002 The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kaltenböck, Gunther
2004 It-extraposition and Non-extraposition in English: A Study of Syntax in Spoken and Written Texts. Wien: Braumüller.Google Scholar
Lambrecht, Knud
1994 Information Structure and Sentence Form: Topic, Focus, and the Mental Representation of Discourse Referents. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2001 A framework for the analysis of cleft constructions. Linguistics 391: 463–516. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Langacker, Ronald
1991 Foundations of Cognitive Grammar. Vol. 2, Descriptive Application. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
McGregor, William
1997 Semiotic Grammar. Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Nichols, Johanna
1978 Secondary predicates. Berkeley Linguistics Society Proceedings 4: 114–127. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
O’Grady, Gerard
2010 A Grammar of Spoken English Discourse: The Intonation of Increments. London: A&C Black.Google Scholar
Patten, Amanda
2012 The historical development of the it-cleft: A comparison of two different approaches. Studies in Language 361: 548–575. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech & Jan Svartvik
1985 A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Rando, Emily & Donna Napoli
1978 Definites in there-sentences. Language 541: 300–313. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Reeve, Matthew
2011 The syntactic structure of English clefts. Lingua 1211: 142–171. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stalnaker, Robert
2002 Common ground. Linguistics and Philosophy 251: 701–721. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tench, Paul
1996 The Intonation Systems of English. London: Cassell.Google Scholar
Verstraete, Jean-Christophe
2007 Rethinking the Coordinate-Subordinate Dichotomy. Interpersonal Grammar and the Analysis of Adverbial Clauses in English. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (12)

Cited by 12 other publications

Carlier, Anne & Karen Lahousse
2023. Chapter 5. Presentational clefts, existentials and information structure. In Existential Constructions across Languages [Human Cognitive Processing, 76], ► pp. 139 ff. DOI logo
Davidse, Kristin, Ngum Meyuhnsi Njende & Gerard O’Grady
2023. Introduction. In Specificational and Presentational There-Clefts, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Davidse, Kristin, Ngum Meyuhnsi Njende & Gerard O’Grady
2023. Conclusion. In Specificational and Presentational There-Clefts, ► pp. 155 ff. DOI logo
Davidse, Kristin, Ngum Meyuhnsi Njende & Gerard O’Grady
2023. Structural Assemblies and Semantics of the Four Existential Constructions with Relative Clause. In Specificational and Presentational There-Clefts, ► pp. 75 ff. DOI logo
Gentens, Caroline, Lobke Ghesquière, William B. McGregor & An Van linden
2023. Introduction. Reconnecting form and meaning. In Reconnecting Form and Meaning [Studies in Language Companion Series, 230], ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Kaltenböck, Gunther
2023. Chapter 1. On the use of there -clefts with zero subject relativizer. In Reconnecting Form and Meaning [Studies in Language Companion Series, 230], ► pp. 17 ff. DOI logo
van Praet, Wout
2023. Referential accessibility as an index of the discourse functions of predicative and specificational clauses. Text & Talk 43:1 ► pp. 113 ff. DOI logo
Jourdain, Morgane
2022. The emergence of Information Structure in child speech: the acquisition ofc’est-clefts in French. Cognitive Linguistics 33:1 ► pp. 121 ff. DOI logo
Lahousse, Karen
2022. Is focus a root phenomenon?. In When Data Challenges Theory [Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 273], ► pp. 148 ff. DOI logo
Cruschina, Silvio
2018. Setting the boundaries. Belgian Journal of Linguistics 32 ► pp. 53 ff. DOI logo
Karssenberg, Lena, Karen Lahousse, Béatrice Lamiroy, Stefania Marzo & Ana Drobnjakovic
2018. Non-prototypical clefts. Belgian Journal of Linguistics 32 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Destruel, Emilie
2017. The pragmatics of French (non-)prototypical clefts: Influence of the type of question on naturalness and interpretation. Journal of Pragmatics 121 ► pp. 58 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 2 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.