A Contribution to the Repertory of Examples

Charles J. Fillmore

A stacked relative clause construction, (or, simply, a stacked relative) is a construction in which a relative clause modifies a nominal construction already containing a relative clause. A cleft sentence is a sentence one of whose constituents is introduced by anticipatory IT.[1] A sentence which exhibits simultaneously stackedness and cleavage is the following:

It's my buxom cousin who's wearing a low-cut sweater that's a good example of a cleft stacked relative.

Note

[1] It's extremely important to distinguish cleft sentences from pseudo-cleft sentences.
Instances of cleavage have IT in front; instances of pseudo-cleavage have WHAT in front.

From: Zwicky, Salus, Binnick and Vanek (eds.),

Studies Out In Left Field:

Defamatory Essays Presented to James D. McCawley

On the Occasion of His 33rd or 34th Birthday.

1971. Edmonton: Linguistic Research, Inc.

Reprinted 1992 by John Benjamins