Lecture 11: Cleft sentences.

A cleft sentence is a device for focusing a tention on a particular piece of information. It is a sentence in which a simplier sentence is paraphrasedsed by being divided into two parts, each with its own verb, in order to emphasize certain information.

\\Mr Brown gave George this ticket -- we can focus a tention in difficult ways.

1. It was Mr Brown who gave George this ticket

2. It was George he gave this ticket to

3. It was this ticket that he gave (to) George

4. It was on Sunday that he gave George this ticket

In another type of sentence, sometimes considered as cleft, but more carefully distinguished as pseudo=cleft, the focus of information can unequivocally come at the very end.A pseudo cleft-sentence starts with a nominal relative clause (beginning with "what")as a subject. Unlike The cleft sentence, the pseudo-cleft can give focus to the verb element:

--What Mr brown gave George was this ticket

--What Bob does on Sunday is (to) play golf.