Cleft (definition)
From Scottish Gaelic Grammar Wiki
Revision as of 21:22, 13 November 2009 by AndrewCarnie (talk | contribs)
A 'cleft' (also referred to as a 'cleft sentence') is a complex sentence constructed using a focused element preceded by either a special clefting particle or a phrase like "it is" followed by a relative clause marked with the complementizer that or "which". This type of complex sentence construction is usually used to bring focus to a particular constituent. An example in English is "It was pizza that he insisted on eating. Gaelic uses a lot of clefts. They typically start with 'S e and are followed by a clause starting with the complementizer a: 'S e pizza a dh'ith e
