Frontmatter -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- Chapter 1. Introduction and background -- Chapter 2. A model of language structure and language change -- Chapter 3. Specificational copular constructions -- Chapter 4. It-clefts as specificational copular sentences -- Chapter 5. Other varieties of it-cleft -- Chapter 6. The it-cleft and earlier periods of English -- Chapter 7. The it-cleft's development over time -- Chapter 8. The it-cleft and constructional change -- Chapter 9. Conclusions -- Corpora and data sources -- References -- Index