THE IT IS THAT -CONSTRUCTION AND ABDUCTIVE INFERENCE

It has been pointed out that the it is that-construction, exemplified by the italicized sentence in (1), has a wide range of interpretations, such as explanation, interpretation, excuse, conclusion, and so forth, which I assume are illocutionary forces determined in actual contexts (cf. Declerck (1992), Otake (2002, 2009)).1 In (1), for example, the construction gives an explanation or an excuse for the speaker’s inability to repay some money. (1) I cannot pay you back today. It’s just that all the banks are closed.2 (Koops (2007: 207)) Whatever illocutionary force the construction has, however, it basically serves to provide a cause of what is stated in the previous sentence (cf. Curme (1931), Bolinger (1972), Carlson (1983); Cambridge International Dictionary of English). Bolinger (1972) thus paraphrases it as the it is be-