Description
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.
Table of Contents
List of tables and figures; List of abbreviations and symbols; Acknowledgements; 1. Approaches to the study of cleft and pseudo-cleft constructions 2. The database 3. Defining the class 4. Formal properties 5. Communicative meanings 6. Communicative meanings in the corpus 7. Clefts, pseudo-clefts and register variation 8. Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index
