Predication and specification in the syntax of cleft sentences

This paper reviews the differences between predicational and specificational copular sentences in the realm of (pseudo-)cleft constructions, and proposes an analysis which treats the it of specificational it-clefts as a pro-predicate that inverts with its subject in the course of the syntactic derivation. In contrastive-focus it-clefts, the sentence-final relative clause is a right-dislocated headless relative dependent on a formal licensing relationship with the operator inside the relative clause and a content-licensing relationship with the focus. This dual licensing dependency explains the restrictions on the distribution of which as the relative clause operator in contrastive-focus it-clefts. Continuous-topic it-clefts are structurally assimilated to pseudorelative constructions, which accounts for the restrictions on the realisation of the left periphery of their relative clause. Keywords: it-cleft; predication; specification; headless relative; asyndetic specification