What does clefting mean?
Clefting refers primarily to a grammatical technique in which a single clause is split into two parts so that one element stands out. In English this takes well-known forms such as the it-cleft — 'It was Maria who called' — and the wh-cleft or pseudo-cleft — 'What surprised me was the price.' By moving the emphasized information into a highlighted position, speakers control focus and emphasis in ways a plain sentence cannot achieve. The term belongs chiefly to linguistics and language teaching, where cleft sentences are studied as tools for marking contrast, correcting assumptions, and managing what listeners attend to. A secondary, non-technical sense describes the simple act of splitting something into parts. Though specialized, clefting is a useful concept for anyone interested in how everyday word order quietly shapes meaning.
nounIn linguistics, the syntactic process of dividing a sentence into two parts to highlight one element, as in 'It was John who left.' More broadly, the act or result of splitting something into two parts.
- In linguistics, the construction or process by which a sentence is divided into two clauses so that one element receives special emphasis (e.g., it-clefts and wh-clefts).
- The act or process of splitting or dividing something into two parts.
"The teacher used clefting to show how emphasis can shift within an ordinary sentence."
"Clefting allows speakers to foreground new information: compare 'I like tea' with 'It's tea that I like.'"
"The mason's careful clefting of the stone produced two clean faces."
Say 'It was the dog that ate my homework' instead of 'The dog ate my homework,' and you've just performed clefting — grammar's built-in spotlight.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of clefting
As a linguistic term, 'clefting' derives from 'cleft sentence,' coined by Jespersen in the early twentieth century to describe sentences 'cleaved' into two parts. 'Cleft' itself comes from Old English 'gecliefed,' the past participle of 'clēofan' ('to split'), from Proto-Germanic *kleuban, making it cognate with Dutch 'kloven' and related to Greek 'glyphein' and Latin 'glubere' at the deeper Indo-European level.
Related word forms
How clefting is actually used
The linguistic sense is technical, appearing mainly in syntax textbooks and academic writing on English grammar; both 'it-clefting' and pseudo-clefting ('wh-clefting') are standard terms of art. The general 'splitting' sense is rare and largely confined to descriptions of physical division.
Easily confused with clefting
'Cleft' is the noun for the split or division itself (as in a cleft chin or palate), while 'clefting' is either the act of splitting or, in linguistics, the grammatical strategy of emphasizing part of a sentence.