Rule reminder

Advanced cleft usage requires attention to: 1) agreement between focus element and copula, 2) appropriate tense in both the cleft clause and relative clause, 3) the pragmatic function (focus, contrast, emphasis, topic-marking), 4) register appropriateness (spoken vs. formal), 5) interaction with subjunctive in embedded clauses. Pseudo-clefts and extended pseudo-clefts can have clausal, infinitival, or nominal focus elements.