English Cleft Sentences

What is a cleft sentence? Some English learners may not familiar with this term, but actually they often use it. It is a complex sentence that aimed at emphasizing certain information. “It was my mother who cooked the dinner yesterday”. Have you ever read or heard this sentence construction? The emphasize is “It was my mother” – the first clause, then followed by another clause “who cooked the dinner yesterday”. A sentence that has two or more clauses is called a complex sentence. And yes, that example is one of the examples of cleft sentence derived from a simple sentence – a sentence that has only one clause, e.g. “My mother cooked the dinner yesterday.” There’s no part to be emphasized in this simple sentence. To get more understanding about cleft sentences, see the following examples and explanations.  

According to Quirk (1986) in Widiastuti, et.al (2015), the flexibility of the cleft sentences can be seen in the case in which different parts can be highlighted. For example, from the basic sentence “John wore a white suit at the dance last night”, four cleft sentences can be derived:

1.   Subject as focus

“It was JOHN who wore a white suit at the dance last night.”

2. Direct object as focus

“It was WHITE SUIT that John wore at the dance last night.”

3. Adverb of time as focus

“It was LAST NIGHT that John wore a white suit at the dance.”

4.   Adverb of position as focus

“It was AT THE DANCE that John wore a white suit last night.”

There are also other elements that can act as the initial focus of a cleft sentence:

5.   Indirect object as focus

“It’s ME he gave the book TO.”

“It’s TO ME that he gave the book.”

6.   Object complement as focus

“It’s DARK GREEN that we’ve painted the kitchen”.

7.   Subject complement as focus

“It was A DOCTOR that he eventually became.”

Moreover, Quirk (1986: 1387 – 1389) explain another type of cleft sentences called pseudo-cleft sentence. The construction of pseudo-cleft sentence can make explicit the division between given and new parts of the communication. It is essentially an SVC sentence with a nominal relative clause as subject or as complement. For example:

“What you need most is a good rest.” or “A good rest is what you need most.”

In some respects, the pseudo-cleft sentence is more limited than the cleft sentence proper. It is usually with what-clause. Clauses with who, where, and when are sometimes acceptable, but mainly when the wh- clause is subject complement, and clauses introduced by whose, why, and how are rarely used in pseudo-cleft sentence construction.

Example:

“Here is where the accident took place.”

“(In) Autumn is when the countryside is most beautiful.”

“The police chief was who I meant.”

References:

Quirk, Randolph, et.al. 1986. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. New York: Longman Inc.

Widiastuti, Ni Made Ayu, et.al. 2015. The Translation of English Cleft Sentences into Indonesian (A Case Study of Students’ Assignments). A Paper Presented at The 62nd Teflin International Conference, 14- 16 September 2015, Bali.