CLEFT CONSTRUCTIONS

 A sentence or clause formed from another by dividing the latter into two clauses, each with its own finite verb, so as to place emphasis on a particular component (the focus) in the original sentence (Oxford Dictionary)

It-Cleft 

It + verb be + focus +relative clause (who/m, that/which,-,....)

Ben always plays football on Sundays

a. It is Ben [NP] who always plays football on Sundays (i.e., not his father)

b. It is football [NP] (that) Ben always plays on Sundays (not golf)

c. It is on Sundays [PP]that always plays football (not Saturdays)

Wh-cleft (Pseudo-Cleft Construction)

consist of a free relative clause, a form of be and either a NP or a VP. The emphasized part comes at the end. 

What (or where/when) + ....+ verb be + focus

What they like is a long lunch [NP]

Unlike the cleft sentence, the pseudo-cleft can have a verb phrase in the focus position, e.g.

What Ben does on Sundays in (to) play football [VP]

What Andrew studied at university was linguistics [NP]

What Andrew did was study linguistics at university [VP]

Reverse Pseudo-Cleft --> A long lunch is what they like


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