Clefts and Their Relatives
Clefts and Their Relatives

Author: Matthew Reeve

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 9027255687

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Cleft constructions have long presented an analytical challenge for syntactic theory. This monograph argues that clefts and related constructions cannot be analysed in a straightforwardly compositional manner. Instead, it proposes that the locality conditions on modification (for example by a restrictive relative clause) must be reformulated such that they account for the apparent compositionality of DP-internal modification whilst also permitting 'discontinuous' modification of the type which is independently needed for constructions such as relative clause extraposition. The empirical focus of the book is on clefts in English and Russian, which have a similar interpretation but considerably divergent syntactic structures. The author argues that, despite these syntactic differences, both types of cleft are mapped to their semantic interpretations in the same manner. This monograph will be essential reading for those working on cleft constructions and copular sentences more generally, and will be of interest to those working on the syntax-semantics interface.

Clefts and their Relatives
Clefts and their Relatives

Author: Matthew Reeve

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2012-06-06

Total Pages: 239

ISBN-13: 9027274606

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Cleft constructions have long presented an analytical challenge for syntactic theory. This monograph argues that clefts and related constructions cannot be analysed in a straightforwardly compositional manner. Instead, it proposes that the locality conditions on modification (for example by a restrictive relative clause) must be reformulated such that they account for the apparent compositionality of DP-internal modification whilst also permitting ‘discontinuous’ modification of the type which is independently needed for constructions such as relative clause extraposition. The empirical focus of the book is on clefts in English and Russian, which have a similar interpretation but considerably divergent syntactic structures. The author argues that, despite these syntactic differences, both types of cleft are mapped to their semantic interpretations in the same manner. This monograph will be essential reading for those working on cleft constructions and copular sentences more generally, and will be of interest to those working on the syntax-semantics interface.

Specificational and Presentational There-Clefts
Specificational and Presentational There-Clefts

Author: Kristin Davidse

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2023-07-31

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 3031322703

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This book proposes a radically new account of clefts in English. Since the 1960s, functional as well as formal linguists have generally restricted clefts to constructions with an identifying matrix (it-clefts) and have claimed that they only code information structure. Clefts are assumed to unpack a simple proposition into a focus – presupposition structure. In this book, the authors reject these theoretical-descriptive assumptions, arguing instead that clefts form a field comprising it-clefts, there-clefts and ‘have’-clefts. They show that, like any other construction, clefts compositionally code propositional semantics, onto which a great variety of prosodically coded focus patterns may be mapped. The authors fundamentally challenge the existing approach by entering the debate with an in-depth account of the neglected specificational and presentational there-clefts, offering the first systematic data-based study of their grammatical and prosodic features. While the study is restricted to English, its findings have significant cross-linguistic relevance. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Functional, Cognitive and Formal Linguistics, Corpus Linguistics, and usage-based study of grammar and prosody.

Cleft Structures
Cleft Structures

Author: Katharina Hartmann

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2013-11-15

Total Pages: 358

ISBN-13: 9027271127

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The phenomenon of clefts is beyond doubt a golden oldie. It has captivated linguists of different disciplines for decades. The fascination arises from the unique syntax of clefts in interaction with their pragmatic and semantic interpretation. Clefts structure sentences according to the information state of the constituents contained in them. They are special as they exhibit a rather uncommon syntactic form to achieve the separation of the prominent part, either focal or topical, from the background of the clause. Despite the long-lasting interest in clefts, linguists have not yet come to an agreement on many basic questions. The articles contained in this volume address these issues from new theoretical and empirical perspectives. Based on data from about 50 languages from all over the world, this volume presents new arguments for the proper derivation of clefts, and contributes to the ongoing debate on the information-structural impact of cleft structures. Theoretically, it combines modern syntactic theorizing with investigations at the interface between grammar and information-structure.

Cleft and Pseudo-Cleft Constructions in English
Cleft and Pseudo-Cleft Constructions in English

Author: Peter C. Collins

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-07-03

Total Pages: 429

ISBN-13: 1317421361

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First published in 1991, this book examines the communicative properties of ‘cleft’ and ‘pseudo-cleft’ constructions in contemporary English. The book argues that these properties cannot be ignored in any attempt to provide an adequate grammatical description of the constructions. Furthermore, they provide a source of explanations for the patterns of stylistic variation displayed by clefts and pseudo-clefts. The book reports findings from a corpus-based study of clefts and pseudo-clefts in modern British English.

Cleft Lip and Palate
Cleft Lip and Palate

Author: Diego F. Wyszynski

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2002-08-01

Total Pages: 547

ISBN-13: 0199771642

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Majoradvances in the diagnosis and treatment of oral clefts have been made in the past 50 years, and recent genetics and epidemiological studies have led to new theories about the causes of cleft lip and palate. Addressing issues that are relevant to clinicians, researchers and family members, this book is a comprehensive, well-illustrated, and up-to-date account of the many facets of this common disorder. The authors describe the embryological and molecular mechanisms of cleft causation, present and illustrate the genetic and epidemiological methods used to identify risk factors for oral clefts, and describe treatments by the various professionals of the cleft team. A section is also devoted to the integration of research findings into public health practice, including ethical and financial considerations. The book draws together such diverse disciplines as craniofacial development, gene mapping, epidemiology, medicine, ethics, health economics, and health policy and management, and it will be an invaluable reference work.

Frequency, Forms and Functions of Cleft Constructions in Romance and Germanic
Frequency, Forms and Functions of Cleft Constructions in Romance and Germanic

Author: Anna-Maria De Cesare

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2014-11-10

Total Pages: 426

ISBN-13: 3110361876

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The volume describes the frequency, the forms and the functions of different cleft construction types across two language families: the Romance languages (with discussion of Italian, French and Spanish data) and the Germanic languages (with focus on English, German, Swiss German and Danish).

The English it-Cleft
The English it-Cleft

Author: Amanda Patten

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2012-12-19

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 3110279525

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This book examines the structure and function of the English it-cleft configuration from within the framework of construction grammar. It defends a straightforward extraposition-from-NP analysis (on which the cleft clause is a restrictive relative, modifying the initial it) and claims that all types of it-cleft involve nominal predication. Support for this analysis comes from three main areas: (a) the central role of definiteness in the creation of specificational meaning, (b) the existence and makeup of predicational (and proverbial) it-clefts, and (c) the early, historical it-cleft data. In addition, the book contains a sizeable diachronic component, drawing data from the Penn Parsed Corpora of Historical English and from the International Corpus of English - Great Britain. This investigation informs and advances what is an otherwise simple account of the English it-cleft, explaining how and why the configuration has developed an assortment of peculiar, construction-specific properties over time.