The Analysis Of The Structural Features Of Basic Wb-cleft And Its Application

Basic wh-clefts is a kind of so called emphasis structure and this structure is very popular in English. It is a copula construction and begins with a clause introduced by a wh-word and this part is followed by a copula be and after the copula be, there is a focal constituent(Takamichi).The studies of English clefts are from different aspects. Some scholars concentrate on level of structure, such as Jesperson(1927), Huang(1996) and Chen(2006). Some scholars’ analysis is concerned about the diachronic study, such as Ball(1991). And some concentrate on the description and the comparison between different kinds of clefts in terms of function such as Collins(1991), Prince(1997), Poutsma(1916). They all have made great contribution to the description of English clefts.However, through all these thesis, nearly all these studies are concerned about it-clefts,and the emphasis on basic wh-clefts is very little. What’s more, there are still problems with the definition of basic wh-clefts because the previous scholars just give this structure a definition in a macroscopic scale. They didn’t define this structure in detail. Therefore,without defining basic wh-clefts in detail, it will be difficult especially for English learners in their practical application of this structure in both spoken and written English.Therefore, to solve these problems, to help English learners understand this structure more clearly and apply this structure better, this paper will give a detailed description of each part of this structure and explain certain phenomenon in its practical application in spoken and written English.Correspondingly, these three detailed questions will be answered in this thesis:(1) What are the structural components of basic wh-clefts?i Wh-words: except what, can others(how, when, where, who, why) introduce the basic wh-clefts in the part of wh-clauses?ii Copula be: except the singular forms is and was, can other forms be used as the copula,for example, are and were, has/have been and so on?iii Highlighted elements: which kind of sentence components can be used as highlighted element ?(2)What is the distribution of basic wh-clefts in spoken and written English ?(3) Why should the basic wh-clefts be used more in spoken or used more in written?After the comprehensive analysis and explanation, some conclusions are made:(1)Basic wh-clefts can be introduced by what, how and when; the form of copula be can be is, are,was,were and have/has been; there are seven kinds of phrases used in highlighted elements,infinitive phrase with(to) do, noun or nominal phrase, complete sentences, means and instrument adverbials,-ing form and adjective phrase;(2)Basic wh-cleft is used more in spoken than in written English according to the corpus;(3)The reasons are demonstrated from the perspectives of the differences of spoken and written, the speakers’ psychology, focus and intonation and meaning to make the conclusion that basic wh-cleft is used more in spoken..This study is based on corpus and interview, combined with descriptive study method to make a comprehensive analysis about basic wh-clefts.Through the description and explanation to this structure, we believe that these findings can be useful for the practical application of wh-clefts for English learners.