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A Comparison of Wh-Clefts and it-Clefts in Discourse
Abstract
WH-clefts and it -clefts have long been claimed to be interchangeable. However, an examination of naturally-occurring discourse demonstrates that this claim is incorrect. The presupposed part (WH-clause) of a WH-cleft represents information that the speaker can assume the hearer is thinking about. In one variety of it -cleft, the presupposed part ( that /WH-clause) represents information which the speaker assumes the hearer knows or can deduce, but is not presumably thinking about. In another variety of it -cleft, the presupposed part represents information which the speaker takes to be a known fact, though definitely NOT known to the hearer.
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Citations
Cited by
Croft, W., & Cruse, D. A. (2004) · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511803864 · Cited by 3,316
Biber, D., & Conrad, S. (2019) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108686136 · Cited by 623
Autonomy and Functionalist Linguistics
Croft, W. (1995) · Language · doi:10.2307/416218 · Cited by 462
Grammar of Spoken and Written English
Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G. N., Conrad, S., & Finegan, E. (2021) · John Benjamins Publishing Company eBooks · doi:10.1075/z.232 · Cited by 394
Focus, pragmatic presupposition, and activated propositions
Dryer, M. S. (1996) · Journal of Pragmatics · doi:10.1016/0378-2166(95)00059-3 · Cited by 356
Metadata
- Authors
- Prince, E. F.
- Venue
- Language
- Publisher
- JSTOR
- Published
- 1978-12
- Volume
- 54
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 883
- ISSN
- 0097-8507 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2015413054
- Cited by
- 705
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 9.82
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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