A question of clefts and a clefting of questions: a structural and functional analysis of content interrogative clefts in Danish

Presupposition and focus are expressed by cleft constructions in Danish like in many other Indo-European languages. When these two functions need to be mapped onto an interrogative construction, they can be expressed by a content interrogative (hvem gjorde det ‘Who did it?’). However, as a special possibility in Danish (as well as in other Scandinavian languages) the functions of interrogativity, presupposition and focus can also readily be expressed by content interrogative clefts (hvem var det der gjorde det ‘Who did it?’). This raises the question: what is the difference between the two constructions. We do not know much about the discourse functions or even structure of the content interrogative cleft as the construction is underdescribed in Danish grammar. In this article I will analyse the structural and functional difference between the two constructions. I will show that the major syntactical difference between the two is subordination. Further, I will show that the cleft caters for a range of textual and contextual functions in discourse including marking mirativity. These analyses implicate that the content interrogative cleft needs to be included in accounts of question forming in Danish and in accounts of the Danish cleft construction.