The Cleft Construction in Irish
Hideki Maki and Dónall P. Ó Baoill
Gifu University and Queen’s University Belfast (Prof. Emeritus)
1. Introduction
This paper investigates the properties of the cleft construction in Irish, and points out (i)that CPs and adjective phrases (APs) can be clefted in Irish, unlike English or Japanese, and(ii) that while NP clefting allows six chain patterns with one embedded clause, CP/AP
clefting only allows two chain patterns, just like the comparative formation in Irish. Based onthese findings, we claim (i) that the COMP of the clefted CP does not need to be raised to Vin Irish, while it must in English and Japanese, and (ii) that the chain patterns allowed in thecleft and the comparative constructions suggest the nature of the operators to be moved in theconstructions.
2. DataFirst, Irish allows NPs, PPs, Adjunct Clauses, CPs, and APs to be clefted. For spacereasons, only the last two examples are shown below.
(1)(Isé) [gur cheannaigh Seán carr]1 Op1 a chreideann Máire t1.
COP it [that boughtJohn car]aL believe
Mary‘*It is [that John bought a car] that Mary believes t1.’

(CP Clefting)(2)

Róchliste1 Op1 atá
Seán t1.
too.clever
aL+be.PRES John‘*It is too clever that John is.’(AP Clefting)

Second, while NP clefting allows six chain patterns with one embedded clause, CP/APclefting only allows two chain patterns, as shown in (3)-(10). (Note that AP clefting data are
not provided here due to space limitations.)
NP Clefting(3)

Isí [an carr seo]1 Op1 a chreideann tú a cheannaigh Seán t1.
COP.PRES it the car thisaL believe
you aL boughtJohn‘It is this car that you believe that John bought.’(aL, aL, t)(4)Isí [an carr seo]1 Op1 a gcreideann tú gur cheannaigh Seán í1.
COP.PRES it the car thisaN believe
you that boughtJohn it (aN, go, it)(5)Isí [an carr seo]1 Op1 a gcreideann tú ar cheannaigh Seán í1.
COP.PRES it the car thisaN believe
you aN boughtJohn it (aN, aN, it)(6)Isí [an carr seo]1 Op1 a chreideann tú ar cheannaigh Seán í1.
COP.PRES it the car thisaL believe
you aN boughtJohn it (aL, aN, it)(7)t1.
Isí [an carr seo]1 Op1 a raibh súil agam a cheannófá
COP.PRES it the car thisaN was hope at.me aL buy.COND.2.SG‘It is this car that I hoped that you would buy.’(aN, aL, t)
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Is
í [an carr seo]1 Op1 a mheasann Seán gur cheart dúinn í1 a cheannach.
COP.PRES it the car thisaL think
John that right for.us it to buy‘It is this car that John thinks that we ought to buy it.’(aL, go, it)

CP Clefting(9)Isé [gur cheannaigh Seán an carr seo]1 Op1 a chreideann Máire a dúirt
COP.PRES it that boughtJohn the car thisaL believe
Mary aL said
siad t1.
they‘It is [that John bought a car]1 that Mary believes that they said t1.’
(aL, aL, t)(10) Isé [gur cheannaigh Seán an carr seo]1 Op1 a raibh súil agam aCOP.PRES it that boughtJohn the car thisaN was hope at.me aLdéarfá
t1.
say.COND.2.SING‘It is [that John bought this car]1 that I hoped that you would say t1.’
(aN, aL, t)
3. Discussion
Let us now consider what the observed facts might suggest. First, the fact that CPs canbe clefted in Irish, but not in English or Japanese, seems to arise from the difference in word
order between Irish (VSO) on the one hand, and English (SVO) and Japanese (SOV) on theother. In English and Japanese, O (complement) is adjacent to V, while in Irish, it is not, as it
is separated from V by S. We take this to suggest that there is a close relationship between Oand V in English and Japanese, while no such relation holds in Irish. In English and Japanese,(the relevant feature of) COMP will adjoin to V possibly in LF, while this operation does nottake place in Irish. In the cleft structure under Chomsky’s (1977) hypothesis, the clefted partis base-generated in the pre-CP position. Then, in English and Japanese, (the relevant featureof) COMP cannot adjoin to V without lowering, which will cause a violation of the Proper
Binding Condition. On the other hand, this movement does not take place in Irish, and thus,(4) is correctly predicted to be grammatical.
Second, the chain patterns allowed for CP/AP clefting, not NP clefting, are exactly likethe ones for comparative formation in Irish in the sense that the chains are terminated with atrace, not a resumptive pronoun, which indicates that the traces in these examples are notnominal in nature. This in turn suggests that what is moved in comparatives is not nominal innature, either.

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