It-clefts are IT (inquiry terminating) constructions

We present a semantic analysis of the English it-cleft, concentrating on the exhaustive meaning which the cleft introduces. Our analysis has two novel aspects. The first novel aspect concerns the relationship of the it-cleft with focus. Clefts are generally regarded as focus-marking constructions. On the simplest account, the entire pivot of a cleft is taken to be focused. But in fact this is not necessarily the case. We discuss examples in which only a portion of the pivot is focused — and show that in these examples, the location of focus within the pivot is crucial in determining the exhaustive meaning which arises.