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Theoretically,this thesis studies it-cleft construction based on figure-ground theory,which provides a cognitive perspective for the research of it-cleft construction andexpands the application of figure-ground theory in syntax.What’s more,this thesismakes some contributions to the definition and classification of it-cleft construction,which enriches the linguistic research of it-cleft construction.

Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1 Defining and Classifying of It-Cleft Construction

This part will introduce some basic information about it-cleft construction,including its definition and current classification.Through those information,a moreclear and understandable it-cleft construction will be presented,which is helpful for usto understand the research object.

There are many ways to express emphasis in English,including pronunciation,vocabulary and grammar.Among them,the it-cleft construction is one of the maingrammatical means.Jespersen(1927/1937)is the first scholar who brought the word“cleft”into academia,which is still used today.He defines that a it-cleft sentence is asentence which structurally divided into two parts by“it is”(usually followed by arelative pronoun or conjunction).This unique sentence structure is designed to expressemphasis and draw attention to a particular component of the sentence.Since then,it-cleft constructions has attracted attention from many schools.So,according toJespersen(1927),the basic form of the it-cleft construction can be summarized as:“it be+(clefted constituent)+that+(cleft clause)”.The syntactic form of it-cleft constructioncan be shown in table 2-1.

(1)It is a vacuum cup that Christine bought.

2.2 Studies on It-Cleft Construction Abroad

It-cleft construction has been an important research area in linguistics at home andabroad.The reason why it-cleft construction has attracted the attention of experts andscholars in various stages is mainly because of its special structure,discourse function,semantic and pragmatic characteristics.Previous studies on cleft construction atdifferent levels have revealed certain rules,but also left some problems.And,there arefew systematic reviews on the it-cleft construction.Therefore,as the main researchobject,this part first reviews the foreign research on it-cleft construction from bothcognitive and non-cognitive aspects.

2.2.1 Non-Cognitive Approach

This section will first explain the non-cognitive approach of foreign research onit-cleft construction,which can be divided into traditional method,transformationalgenerative method and systemic functional method.The following discussion will focuson these three aspects.

From the traditional approach,it is generally believed that the idea about“cleft”can be traced back to Poutsma(1916/1928),but it was Jespersen(1927)whosystematically expounds this idea.Poutsma(1916)refers that the existence of a class ofsentences guided by the word“it”in English,which is often used in written language toemphasize one’s thoughts.He classified this category of sentences as“complexsentences with two verbs”,and pointed out that the sentence element'it is(was)'doesnot have any s本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。