The syntactic structure of English clefts

Abstract

In this paper I argue that English clefts are an example of an apparent syntax/semantics mismatch, in that the cleft clause (the relative clause appearing at the end of the matrix clause) semantically modifies the initial pronoun it, but syntactically modifies (that is, is underlyingly adjoined to) the clefted XP, as proposed by Hedberg (2000). This renders suspect both ‘specificational analyses’, on which the cleft clause both semantically and syntactically modifies it, and ‘expletive analyses’, on which the cleft clause and clefted XP are both semantically and syntactically composed directly. I provide new evidence for Hedberg's type of analysis. The first set of evidence suggests that cleft it is non-expletive, thus arguing in favour of treating it and the cleft clause as a discontinuous definite description. The second set of evidence shows that, with respect to various tests, the cleft clause behaves as if the clefted XP, rather than it, is its antecedent.