Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Cleft Clause
BASIC CLAUSE
In a basic sentence, no particular emphasis is expressed. Clefting a clause is a means of splitting the clause and moving the
content before or after the predicate to produce a particular effect.
A cleft with what groups information before or after the predicate so that emphasis can be placed elsewhere in the clause.
This emphasized content is joined to the de-emphasized content with be.
what = that which that (pronoun) + which (relative pronoun) that which / the thing that / the part that /
"We can emphasize particular words and expressions by putting everything into a kind of relative clause
except the words we want to emphasize: this makes them stand out." The words to be emphasized are
joined to the relative clause by is or was.
Creating emphasis or weighting content
LENGTHY CONTENT
Speakers commonly use a what phrase (1) to move lengthy wording to the end of the clause (also called "weighting") or (2)
emphasize what is about to be said.
His attention to detail and his ability to think outside-of- was brilliant.
the-box and delight audiences distinguished his work.
WHATPHRASE
Lengthy wording is moved to the end the clause by placing everything else in a what phrase at the beginning of the
clause.
WHAT-PHRS PACKAGE BE EMPHASIS
What was brilliant was his attention to detail and his ability to think outside-of-the-
What distinguished his work box and delight audiences.
What he did was exceed our expectations and push performance art to a
new level.
In a basic sentence, no particular emphasis is expressed. However, if a question were asked, for
example, "Who popularized the moon-walk step?" one would use a cleft sentence to answer.
SUBJECT PREDICATE
ITCLEFT CLAUSE
An it-cleft places the content that we wish to emphasize up front. The rest of the content is
"packaged" into that + a clause. The be verb is singular.
EMPHASIS THATCLAUSE