Japanese pseudoclefts

Examples (1a-b) both consist of a grammatical subject (XP1) and its predicate (XP2) with a copula between them; they differ from each other only in the form of XP1. It is common to assume that only the construction in (1a) is categorized into the class of pseudoclefts (e.g., Higgins, 1979). But I follow Akmajian (1970) among others, who regards the construction in (1b) as a type of pseudocleft as well. Although I discuss this analysis and the difference between (1a-b) in Section 2, I note here that (1a-b) are respectively called a wh-cleft and th-cleft because their XP1 starts with wh and th, respectively. In Japanese, sentences like (2) are often referred to as a pseudocleft. The structure of (2) reflects the analysis of Hoji (1990).2,3,4