Multiple Foci: A Study of English Cleft Sentences

Delahunty (1981) and Nakajima (1994) argue that English cleft sentences allow multiple foci in certain situations. Based on our researches and the above linguists’ data, we suggested that elements which can be multiple foci are referential NPs/PPs (Rizzi 1990, Cinque 1990). Specifically, referential NPs/PPs are a direct object, an indirect object (to NP), a time phrase or a locative phrase, whereas non-referential NPs/PPs are a reason/manner phrase or an instrumental/measure phrase. We argued that multiple foci is generated by “absorption” (Watanabe 2000) and suggested that absorption is successfully carried out between referential NPs/PPs. Our absorption-based approach also explained multiple wh-questions within the framework of the minimalist program (MP) and showed that the doubly-filled COMP filter (Chomsky and Lasnik 1977) is also an indispensable principle in the MP.