Cleft Sentence (It/What): Pengertian dan Contoh Kalimat

Pengertian Cleft Sentence

Cleft sentence adalah suatu konstruksi kalimat yang didapat dengan meneransformasikan (mengubah bentuk) suatu simple independent clause (kalimat utuh) untuk memberi penekanan atau mengubah fokus pada elemen-elemen tertentu pada klausa tersebut. Elemen-elemen yang diberi penekanan dapat berupa subject, object, atau adverbial.

Cleft sentence dapat menggunakan “it” atau “what“.

Cleft Sentence Menggunakan “it”

Cleft sentence yang menggunakan “it” sering digunakan untuk memberikan penekanan pada subject, direct object, atau adverbial. Cleft sentence ini berupa complex sentence berupa independent clause yang diawali dengan “it” dan subordinate clause yang diawali dengan relative pronoun. Untuk gambaran lebih jelasnya dapat dilihat pada rumus dan keterangan sebagai berikut.

It + Verb be + Focus + Subordinate Clause

dimana

Subordinate Clause = Relative Pronoun +/- Subject + Verb + …

Keterangan:

• Verb “be” atau linking verb dapat berupa “is” pada present tense dan “was” pada past tense.
• Focus (yang diberi penekanan) pada cleft sentence berupa subject, object, atau adverbial.
• Relative pronoun dapat berupa that, who, atau whom.

Contoh Cleft Sentence Menggunakan “it”

Jika kita ambil contoh simple independent clause:

The player hit the tennis ball over the net.
(Pemain tersebut memukul bola tenis melewati net.)

Maka cleft sentence yang memfokuskan pada subject:

It was the player that hit the tennis ball over the net.

Cleft sentence yang memfokuskan pada object:

It was the tennis ball that the player hit over the net.

Cleft sentence yang memfokuskan pada adverbial:

It was over the net that the player hit the tennis ball.

Dari contoh diatas dapat kita lihat bahwa cleft sentence bermanfaat untuk memberi penekanan informasi tertentu kepada pembaca.

Lebih Banyak Contoh Cleft Sentence “it”

1. My uncle donated a bunch of money to charity.
   (Paman saya mendonasikan banyak uang untuk amal.)
   • subject It was my uncle who donated a bunch of money to charity. subject.
   • object It was a bunch of money that my uncle donated to charity.
   • adverbial It was to charity that my uncle donated a bunch of money.
2. Adam wanted to send the packet.
   (Adam ingin mengirim paket tersebut.)
   • subject It was Adam who wanted to send the packet.
   • object It was the packet that Adam wanted to send.
3. The ship leaves the harbour at 7 pm.
   (Kapal tersebut meninggalkan pelabuhan jam 7 malam.)
   • subject It is the ship that leaves the harbour at 7 pm.
   • object It is the harbour that the ship leaves at 7 pm.
   • adverbial It is at 7 pm that the ship leaves the harbour.
4. He misses me so much.
   (Dia sangat merindukan saya.)
   • subject It is he who misses me so much.
   • object It is me whom he misses so much.

Cleft Sentence Menggunakan “what”

Cleft sentence yang menggunakan “what” sering digunakan untuk memberikan penekanan pada subject atau direct object.

What +/- Subject + Verb (Predicate) + Verb be + Focus

Keterangan:

• Focus (yang diberi penekanan) pada cleft sentence berupa subject atau direct object.
• Verb “be” atau linking verb dapat berupa “is” atau “are” pada present tense dan “was” atau “were” pada past tense. Number dari verb “be” mengikuti number pada focus. Is atau was jika singular (tunggal) dan are atau were jika plural (jamak).

Contoh Cleft Sentence Menggunakan “what”

Jika kita ambil contoh simple independent clause: My old friend looked for a beautiful handycraft. (Teman lamaku mencari sebuah kerajinan tangan yang cantik.) Maka cleft sentence yang memfokuskan pada object:

What my old friend looked for was a beautiful handycraft.

Atau versi inversinya:

A beautiful handycraft was what my old friend looked for.

Contoh lain: That today is his birthday is totally not right. (Bahwa hari ini ulang tahunnya adalah sangat tidak benar.)  Maka cleft sentence yang memfokuskan pada subject:

What totally not right is that today is his birthday.

Lebih Banyak Contoh Cleft Sentence

1. I just bought some great books.
   (Saya baru membeli beberapa buku yang bagus.)
   • object What I just bought were some great books.
2. The story of Hellen Keller made him amazed.
   (Cerita Hellen Keller membuatnya takjub.)
   • subject What made him amazed was the story of Hellen Keller.
3. The new construction worker didn’t know how to operate a backhoe.
   (Pekerja konstruksi baru tersebut tidak tau bagaimana mengoperasikan backhoe.)
   • object What the new construction worker didn’t know was how to operate a backhoe.

Lihat juga:

• Expletive (There dan It)
• Elliptical Construction
• Relative Pronoun
• Verb “To Be”
• Independent Clause

References:

1. Understanding Variable “Cleft” Constructs. http://cstl-cla.semo.edu/eaton/grsammar09d1.htm. Accessed on December 9, 2012.
2. Creating Emphasis by Constructing Cleft Sentences . http://www.uhv.edu/ac/newsletters/writing/grammartip2008.07.08.htm. Accessed on December 9, 2012.
3. Sentence Transformation! https://www.csun.edu/~bashforth/305_PowerPoints/GrammarPres/Grp3_SentTrans_CamillePranjaliSou_Rev1.ppt. Accessed on December 9, 2012.
4. Strange Sentence Orders. http://homepages.uwp.edu/canary/grammar_text/91-clefts.html. Accessed on December 9, 2012.
5. IT-Extraposition. http://www1.icsi.berkeley.edu/~kay/bcg/extrap.html. Accessed on December 9, 2012.
6. Some Untypical Sentence Patterns. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/function/cleft.htm. Accessed on December 9, 2012.
7. What is a cleft sentence? http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsACleftSentence.htm. Accessed on December 9, 2012.
8. Cleft Sentences. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv149.shtml. Accessed on December 9, 2012.