ScholarWorks@경상국립대학교

초록

This study analyzes English cleft constructions(it-and wh-clefts) through the combined framework of Frame Semantics and Information Structure. It-clefts background the event as a presupposed frame and foreground an Entity FE, thereby serving specification, contrast, disambiguation, and discourse refocusing. By contrast, wh-clefts establish a topic frame and highlight Proposition/Event/Property FEs, supporting clarification, reformulation, identification, and topic–comment structuring. Examining naturally attested and constructed examples, the study demonstrates how cleft choice reflects the interaction of frame invocation, FE binding, and the discourse QUD, and how stylistic effects follow from focus packaging. The findings refine syntactic and information-structural accounts, proposing a unified meaning–cognition–discourse model and offering practical criteria for cleft selection across academic, journalistic, and pedagogical contexts.

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