An analysis of 'all'-clefts

• Main Author: Jos Tellings
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Open Library of Humanities 2020-11-01
• Series: Glossa
• Subjects: clefts; 'all'; smallness effect; relative clauses; exclusives; 'only'
• Online Access: https://www.glossa-journal.org/articles/1092

This paper provides an in-depth analysis of the semantic and syntactic properties of 'all'-clefts ('All I ate for dinner was a salad'). The main characteristic of 'all'-clefts is the inference that what is designated by the cleft is not much (the “smallness effect”). On the basis of novel observations on 'all'-clefts with multi-clausal precopular clauses, and the interaction with negation and questions, I argue for three claims: (i) the word 'all' is the head of a relative clause (not a free relative), (ii) the precopular clause is derived by syntactic movement, and (iii) the source of the smallness effect is the mirativity of only (Beaver & Clark 2008; Zeevat 2009). The little formal work that exists on 'all'-clefts (Homer 2019) does not offer an analysis that reflects these three claims. Instead I propose a derivational account of 'all'-clefts based on Boeckx (2007).