The pragmatics of it-clefts and WH-clefts

Abstract

This article is concerned with the principles that govern the use of it-clefts and WH-clefts in discourse. The main points argued are (a) that both it-clefts and WH-clefts fall apart into three major subtypes, and (b) that, although it-clefts and WH-clefts basically have the same meaning and function, there are many pragmatic factors that may induce the speaker to prefer one type of cleft to another in a particular context. Among these factors the most important seem to be the tendency to process continuous (old) information earlier in the sentence and the tendency to put the focal item or the WH-clause in initial position if it is very short. In the final part of the article attention is drawn to a couple of special types of clefts.