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It-clefts
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An example of an it-cleft is given below:

1
It wiene stikken fan Shakespeare dy't ik seach
it were.PL plays of Shakespeare REL.PL I saw
It was plays by Shakespeare that I saw
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The personal subject cleft or it-clefts contains the following constituents from left to right:

  • The impersonal subject it it
  • A third person form of the verb wêze be
  • An XP, usually a Noun Phrase (NP)
  • A relative clause
Frisian it-clefts can feature the same set of relative pronouns as ordinary relatives:

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a. It wie in stik fan Shakespeare dat ik seach
it was a play of Shakespeare REL.NG.SG I saw
It was a play by Shakespeare that I saw
b. It wiene twa stikken fan Shakespeare dy't ik seach
it were.PL two plays of Shakespeare REL.PL I saw
It was two plays by Shakespeare that I saw

However, adverbial clauses of reason feature the pronoun dat that, and not the free relative wêrom why.

3
a. It wie omdat er siik wie dat Bouke net kaam
it was because he ill was that Bouke not came
It was because he was ill that Bouke did not come
b. ?*It wie omdat er siik wie wêrom't Bouke net kaam
it was because he ill was why Bouke not came
It was because he was ill why Bouke did not come

The noun reden reason may occur with either dat that or wêrom't why. It is conceivable that the phrase de reden wêrom the reason why entered the Frisian language as a lexical interference from Dutch, seeing that it occurs mainly in more recent sources, which have in part been written by journalists.

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