Lecture (4)

Thematic Development

The textual metafunction (how the text is structured as amessage, e.g., theme-structure, given/new, rhetorical structureetc.)

relates to the construction of text, how it is held together and what gives it texture.

Its meanings realise what is referred to as the mode (how the language is organised and functions in the interaction, e.g. written, spoken, or some combination)

"The textual metafunction creates discourse"

various structures, when mapped on to each other, make up a clause.

creates discourse clause as message the linguistic expression of the other two metafunctions

(ideational, interpersonal)

the thematic structure is the first structure that gives the clause its character as a message.

Subject – grammatical function Actor – doer of the action Theme – ‘what the sentence is about’

1. The chef is preparing dinner in the kitchen. 2. Dinner is being prepared in the kitchen. 3. In the kitchen, the chef is preparing dinner. 4. In the kitchen, dinner is being prepared by the chef.

The cat ate the rat subject + verb + object

However, there are numerous other ways in which thesemantic content of the sentence could be expressed. Forexample:1. The rat was eaten by the cat.2. It was the cat that ate the rat.3. It was the rat that the cat ate.4. What the cat did was ate the rat.5. Ate the rat, the cat did.6. The cat, it ate the rat.

One important consideration is whether the information hasalready been introduced into the discourse, or is assumed tobe known to the reader or listener. Such information isreferred to as given information.

new information is the one introduced for the first time. it is the speaker/writer who decides what information

should be considered given or new.

in English, the new information in a sentence or utterance generally comes last.

In the statement The cat ate the rat, the assumed knowledge is that the cat ate something and the new information is that it was a rat that got eaten.

There is a close relationship between discourse considerations and grammatical structuring in relation to given and new information.

if we provide questions to which the statement The cat ate the rat might be appropriate responses. We obtain:

o QUESTION: What did the cat do?o RESPONSE: It ate the rat. [Or, The cat, it ate the rat.]

o QUESTION: What happened to the rat?o RESPONSE: It was eaten by the cat.

o QUESTION: Did the dog eat the rato RESPONSE: No, it was the cat that ate the rat.

o QUESTION: Did the cat eat the mouse?o RESPONSE: No, it was the rat that was eaten by the cat.

Definitions of Theme the starting point of the clause message realized in English by first position in a clause must contain a participant, process or circumstance includes any element preceding the first participant, process or

circumstance

In English, the element placed in the front of a clause is asignal of what is to be understood as the “framework” or“point of departure” (Halliday, 1985) .

The rest of the clause is what the writer wants to discusswithin this framework.

Thus, the order which a writer chooses to arrange the words ina sentence depends on the co-text— the sentences before andafter that particular one.

In English Theme= “ the left-most constituent”

Rheme= the rest of the sentence

Theme is not necessarily the subject

Theme Rheme

point of departure of clause as message; local context of clause as piece of text.

Non-Theme – where the presentation moves after the point of departure; what is presented in the local context set up by Theme.

initial position in the clause position following initial position

1a. Mr. Jones retired last month. 1b. He often feels bored.1c. He watches CBS News hourly.

2a. A: Does Mr. Jones watch CNN News?2b. B: No! It’s CBS News, he watches.

3a. Mr. Jones retired last month. 3b. He often feels bored.?3c. It’s CBS News, he watches.

Theme Rheme What does the reader decode?Given New

Mr. Jones →retired last month. Mr. Jones is not working.↓

He → often feels bored. He has nothing to do.↓

He → watches CBS News hourly. He kills his time bywatching the news.

BUT *It’s CBS News, he watches. The reader/listener cannot decode the relation between this sentence and the first two.

Last week, we had a very nice school trip. We first visited thezoo. There, we saw a lot of animals. The animals were verycute. After the zoo, we went to the Natural History Museum. Inthe Museum, we saw many interesting things.

a. Last week, we had a very nice school trip.b.We first visited the zoo.c. There, we saw a lot of animals.d.The animals were very cute.e. After the zoo, we went to the Natural History Museum.f. In the Museum, we saw many interesting things.

Theme RhemeLast week, we had a very nice school trip.

We first visited the zoo.

There, we saw a lot of animals.

The animals were very cute.

After the zoo, we went to the Natural History Museum.

In the Museum, we watched a 3-D movie about earthquakes.

We see two options from the previous analysis:Option A: Theme1 →Rheme1

↓Theme1 →Rheme2

↓Theme1 →Rheme3

Option B: Theme1→Rheme1

↓Theme2 →Rheme2

↓Theme3 →Rheme3

Option C: A combination of Option A & B.Theme1 →Rheme1

Theme 2 →Rheme2Theme 3 →Rheme3

Theme 4 →Rheme4

My mother was born in Boston on May 5, 1974. She wasthe first child in her family and later she got fouryounger sisters. At that time, her father, the only son ofher grand parents, was serving in the army in Saigon.What is worse, her grandfather died after a month shewas born. Without any male members at home, lifebecame difficult for my mother then.

a. My mother was born in Boston on May 5, 1974.b. She was the first child in her family and later she got

four younger sisters.c. At that time, her father, the only son of her grand

parents, was serving in the army in Saigon.d. What is worse, her grandfather died after a month she

was born.e. Without any male members at home, life became

difficult for my mother then.

Theme RhemeMy mother was born in Boston on May 5, 1974.

She was the first child in her family and

she got four younger sisters later in her family.

At that time, her father, the only son of her grand parents, was serving in the army in Saigon.

What is worse, her grandfather died after a month she was born.

Having no malemembers at home, life became difficult for my mother then.

Unmarked (Theme = Subject):

a. The two Indians stood waiting. b. Nick and his father went into the stern of the boat. c. The Indian who was rowing them was working very hard. d. But I will have some photographs taken. e. Oh, you’re a great man. f. No, I think it’s pretty easy. g. There was no need of that. h. Of course it’s an accident.

Marked (Theme =Subject?): a. Across the bay, they found the other boat. b. In February 1979, he was awarded the George Cross posthumously. c. And when you get down there, you find he hasn’t actually got any. d. Inside him was rising an urge to do something, take some action. e. That I don’t know. f. What she had felt he never knew. g. Most troubling of all to some social scientists is the message men

get that being a good father means learning how to mother.

Polarity (yes/no) questionsa. Are you interested in syntax? b. Would you like a cup of tea? c. Oh, so is that your plan? d. But don't any of the artist-folk fancy children? e. By the way, were you serious about moving to Milton

Keynes?

Wh-questionsa. What are you doing here? b. Where are we going? c. Then, in the name of goodness, why does she bother? d. If it's true that contented cows give more milk, why

shouldn't happy ball players produce more base hits?

a. Wake me up before the coffee break. b. Don’t disturb me while I’m taking a nap. c. Let’s have a look at this recipe. d. Oh please stop it.

How lovely to see you again! What a big boy you are now!

The Normans introduced rabbits to Britain. Rabbits were introduced to Britain by the Normans.

Rabbits originate from the western Mediterranean. They were introduced to Britain by the Normans in the 12th century to

provide meat and fur. Rabbits are now widespread throughout Britain and Ireland.

The use of the passive in the second clause, they were introduced, allows this continuity to be created.

1. The question of who we are – what kind of creature is a human being – has been with us for a long time.

2. Only a person who knew that Aubrey St. John was going to be here at this time could have killed him.

1. The fact that the role of the parents and the elders does not appear to be relevant to the younger generation is an important contributory factor in the intergenerational gap and the alienation of the youth.

2. Teachers who normally lived in the city but had accepted an appointment in an institution located in a village and had put in less than five years, were also considered urban.

Sarah Smith, an immigration official who questioned Mr. Malka when he arrived on a Eurostar train from Brussels, said that he had told her that Miss Simmons was going to be his wife.

spoken discourse: a) Would you like tea or coffee?[I would like] tea please.

b) Are you British or American?[I’m] American.

c) [That was a] Fantastic shot!

written text: a) He writes music and [he] plays it on his guitar.

b) They sang and [they] danced all night.

As Lock (1996: 238) notes, existential there isoften used to introduce new participants intothe discourse, after which they may be pickedup as themes in new clauses, as giveninformation.

a) While there are sharks in Greece, most species are harmless.

b) Although there are 10,524 cameras in London a lot of these are very old …

c) There are nine languages in Eritrea. Tigrinya (50 per cent) and Arabic are the working languages.

d) There are 18,000 parking lot attendants in the USA with college degrees. There are 5,000 janitors in the USA with PhDs. In all, some 17 million college-educated Americans have jobs that don’t require their level of education.

These additional thematic elements will be eitherinterpersonal (expressing some sort of attitude towards astatement) or textual (to do with how the text is held together).

interpersonal themes: express the speaker’s/writer’s attitude to what is being said or his or her relationship

a) Personally, I think there is a very good chance he will join Manchester United.

b) Perhaps, he will pay you a visit. c) Darling, I’m waiting for you.

textual themes: They perform a linking function, connecting two clauses together.

a) Finally, they finished their drinks. b) But I don’t want to wash the dishes. c) Moreover, your idea would be impractical.

a) This huge wave of sympathy for Trump possibly is just a refusal of Clinton, to a large part.

b) Hence, therefore, it must naturally turn round the south coast of Ireland.

c) John, however, has made as good an attempt at this task as anyone could be expected to do.

d) The answer, nevertheless, is obvious..

Elements functioning as interpersonal and textual themes fulfilthe role of showing how the content fits in coherently with thesurrounding text (Thompson, 2004: 158).

Theme Rheme

marked textual interpersonalexperiential

(topical)

on a weekday On the other hand maybe it would be less crowded

similar to some of the other variations on the unmarked declarative subject + verb + object clause,

anticipatory it themes into four categories

1. Hedges: a) It is likely that … b) It could be argued that …

2. Attitude markers: a) It is of note that … b) It is worth pointing out that …

3. Emphatics: a) It follows that … b) It is apparent that …

4. Attribution: a) It has been proposed that … b) It is estimated that …

1. Two clauses can be conjoined (for example, ‘Mary loves John and John loves Mary.’).

2. One clause can be embedded as a participant inside another clause (for example, ‘Mary thinks that the child loves her.’).

3. One clause can be subordinated to another by use of grammatical words such as: as, while, because, so (for example, ‘Mary loves John because he is nice.’).

With the first type, the two clauses are treated as main clauses and thus have two themes (Mary and John).

With the second type, embedded clauses, the two clauses are treated as one main clause with one theme (Mary).

With the third type, while each clause can be analysed as having its own theme (Mary and he), the clause that comes first can be analysed as the theme of the whole sentence.

examples of the third type:

a) Susan left her job at the university because she wanted a change of career.

b) While the children slept, their parents played cards. c) Although the film was well reviewed by the critics, it was

not popular with the public

‘top-down’ approach to theme analysis, that is, considering how theme develops in text, we arrive at a rather different picture.

If we consider thematic choices in the context of the text and its social situation, then we can see theme as a resource for orienting to the field of discourse, to what the text is about.

different registers will exhibit different patterns of thematicdevelopment or methods of development (Fries, 1981).

Certain types of text may tend to prefer one type of theme–rheme relationship over another, while other texts will be morevaried.

Certain registers and genres may be recognisable by their thematic development:

In conversation, personal pronouns tend to dominate as theme (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004).

Biographies, tend to favour the reiterated theme pattern. Narratives, similarly, may reiterate the same theme (the

protagonist) frequently. Instruction manuals and recipes are other genres which favour

reiteration of a constant theme, in this case imperative themes. More creative writers prefer to vary thematic development and

sometimes play with it.

From A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh

and other exercices