"This is the first book-length coherent account of cleft constructions in Japanese. Working within a Principles and Parameters framework, with some reference to the Minimalist Program, Mika Kizu argues that these constructions should be analysed on a par with topicalization and head-internal relative clauses. Furthermore, based on one of the most interesting properties of the cleft construction, the syntactic phenomenon of 'connectivity', she proposes that long-distance cleft constructions in Japanese have peculiar structures; an analysis supported by empirical facts such as binding relations, weak crossover effects, interactions with another A'-dependency and clefting adjunct prepositional phrases. In raising the question of why languages such as Japanese observe particular structures whereas some other languages, such as English, do not, this treatment of cleft constructions has intriguing implications for current syntactic theories."--Jacket.