Cleft sentence
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A complex sentence whose meaning could be expressed by a simple sentence, that has a dependent clause in front of the main clause, and that typically stresses a particular constituent.
"Quirk et al (1972) say about the cleft sentence that it is "...so called because it divides a single clause into two separate sections, each with its own verb"."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"Quirk et al (1972) say about the cleft sentence that it is "...so called because it divides a single clause into two separate sections, each with its own verb"."
Etymology
A single clause is split into two separate clauses.