This book examines the structure and function of the English it-cleft configuration from within
the framework of construction grammar. It argues for a straightforward extraposition-from-NP
analysis (on which the cleft clause is a restrictive relative modifying the initial it) and
claims that all types of it-cleft involve nominal predication. Support for this analysis comes
from three under-researched (or unexplored) areas: (a) the central role of definite noun
phrases in the creation of specificational meaning (b) the existence and makeup of
predicational (and proverbial) it-clefts and (c) the early historical it-cleft data. In
addition the book contains a sizeable diachronic component drawing data from the Penn Parsed
Corpora of Historical English and from the International Corpus of English. This investigation
informs and advances what is an otherwise simple account of the English it-cleft explaining
how and why the configuration has developed an assortment of peculiar construction-specific
properties over time.
