Gramaticalización de la cópula como articulador de estructura temática

Information structure

Topic - focus

.	a.	Pedro entregó el informe al director.
	b.	Pedro entregó al director el informe.

a: neutral. b: focus last.

Pseudo-cleft sentence

.	Lo que Pedro entregó al director fue el informe.

The general structure of the pseudo-cleft sentence is shown in the following diagram. It shows the order of suspensive focus, which is the default order for a pseudo-cleft sentence.

Pseudo-cleft sentence
[	[	... [Pron/∅]_C.i ...	]_^↴S	(Cop)	[ F ]_C.i	]_{S_↴}
	[	subject	]		non-verbal predicate
		empty place			focal component
[	[	oriented open clause	]	non-verbal clause		]
[	[	dependent clause	]	main clause		]

The definitional properties of the pseudo-cleft sentence are:

As in any cleft-construction,

the main clause S_↴ has a non-verbal predicate (i.e. it is a nominal or copula clause)
the predicate is the focal constituent.

The extrafocal portion ^↴S is an open oriented clause, specifically in several languages a free relative clause.
The extrafocal portion ^↴S is the subject of the sentence.
The empty position in the oriented clause is coreferential with the predicate nominal of the main clause. Consequently, the main predication states identity of the subject ^↴S with the predicate nominal F of S_↴. The function of this construction is therefore identificational focus.

The relative clause of a pseudo-cleft construction may be a pronominal one, and the pronoun is often based on the interrogative pronoun. This is not definitional.