Nominal Cleft Construction (Feature 104)

From Apics

Feature Annotation

Here we ask how nominal cleft constructions are expressed. A cleft construction is defined as a focussing construction in which the focussed constituent (= focus) occurs as a predicated element outside the background clause (normally to the left of the background clause, rarely, in some SOV languages, to the right).
The background clause typically has the form of a relative clause. The focus is typically highlighted by a copula or by a non-copula highlighter. Clefts may lack relative markers or highlighters, but they must normally show either an overt highlighter or an overt relative clause marker to be recognizable as such. Mere fronting of the focus (as in English The money I want) is not sufficient to make a focussing construction a cleft.
But clause-external position of the focus is a necessary condition: If your language uses a highlighter within the matrix clause without moving the focus, this does not count as a cleft construction (and hence as value 7), cf. Sri Lanka Malay:

Go aayer jo miinung.
[1SG water HL drink]
’It’s water that I am drinking.’

If your language fits value 1, 2, 3 or 4, but uses additional markers, please disregard these additional markers. Nigerian Pidgin, for instance, may mark the end of the focus by a special particle, as in the following example:
Nà mà fada shà [we byud dì haws].
[COP my father PART REL build the house]
‘It is my father who built the house.’
So in this case, since Nigerian Pidgin uses a copular highlighter before the focus, choose value 1.

Additional remarks

....

Values

Value		Value Annotation
1	Copula + focus + background clause	Nigerian Pidgin English Nà mà fada [byud dì haws.] [COP my father build the house] ’It was my father who built the house.’
2	Focus + copula + background clause	Nicaraguan Creole Demiz [huu woz marginated]. ‘It is them who were marginated.’
3	Non-copula highlighter + focus + background clause	(formal written) Seychelles Creole Se mon papa [ki ti fer li]. [HL my father REL PAST do it] ’It was my father who did it.’
4	Focus + non-copula highlighter + background clause	Principense Pwe tê êli [ki non vê.] [father your HL REL we see] ’It is your father that we saw.’
5	(No highlighter/No copula) Focus + background clause	Haitian papa [ki di m sa.] [father REL tell me that] ’It is my father who told me that’, literally “My father [that told me that].”
6	Other	(Please give details in the “General comments” field.)
7	Nominal focussing is not done by cleft construction

WALS No.

(None)