Theme and Rheme
▪Theme is a clau-initial element. Theme is always that which comes first in the clau (in English).
▪Theme provides the "local context" for the development of the clausal message. The rest of the message is called Rheme.
▪Theme is the point of departure. What this means is that the Theme is the point beyond which the message in the clau properly takes off.
The thematic portion can have as many as three elements:
Textual Theme
（structural） | Conjunctions
Conjunctive adjuncts
Wh-relatives [½ text., ½ top.] |
Interpersonal Theme | Vocatives
Modal adjuncts
Finite elements
Wh-question words [½ int., ½ top.] |
Topical Theme | Participant
Circumstance
Process |
| |
Where Theme stops and Rheme starts. Here is the golden rule:
In the clau, you start at the beginning and keep on arching until you find the Topical Theme. Once you've done that, you have your Thematic portion. Everything el after the topical Theme is the Rheme. The Thematic portion, therefore, is everything from the start of the clau up to and including the Topical Theme (unmarked).
However, you'll need to make an exception where marked Themes are concerned. It is possible for the thematic portion to contain more than one topical Theme, provided all the topical Themes in the thematic portion are marked. More on this later.
Let's start at the beginning of the clau. If you encounter any of the following:
▪Continuatives (eg, umm, yeah, ...)
▪Conjunctions (eg, and, or, but)
▪Conjunctive adjuncts (eg, however, therefore, becau, ...)
▪Wh-relative (eg, that, which, who, ...)
label them as Textual Themes.
As indicated in the table above, make a slight exception for wh-relatives. They are both textual and topical Theme rolled into one. Going by the golden rule, if you have a clau initiated by a wh-relative (which is both a textual and topical Theme), everything el after the wh-relative would be Rheme. For example:
The official, | « who
Txt/Top Theme | slept on a meeting, »
Rheme | lost his job. |
| | | |
If you encounter the following:
▪Vocatives (eg, Henry!, Sir!, ...)
▪Modal adjuncts, including mood and comment adjuncts (eg, probably, usually, frankly, ...
)
▪Finite operators (eg, modal auxiliaries, 'be' auxiliary, ...)
▪Wh-question word (eg, who, what, where, how, why)
label them as Interpersonal Themes.
Again, make an exception for wh-question words. The are both interpersonal and topical Themes squeezed into one. Example:
Why
Int/Top Theme | did the official sleep?
Rheme |
| |
Finally, label the first participant (usually NG), circumstance (usually PP or AdvG), or process (VG) as Topical Theme. Once you've done that, you have your thematic portion of the clau. Here's a simple example with all three types of Themes:
Well,
Txt | Sir,
Int | why
Int/Top | do you sleep on my meeting?
Rheme |
| | | |
Plea note that topical Themes are obligatory for all claus. The other Theme types (textual and interpersonal) are optional. This means that, sometimes, you may even need to recover ellipd elements in analysis. For example, in:
Superman bit Mr Bean, and was sorry about it.
We have two claus, the topical Theme of the first clau is "Superman". The cond clau’s topical Theme is ellipd “he”:
and
Txt |
(Top) | was sorry about it
Rheme |
| | |
Unmarked & marked Themes
By markedness is meant that the occurrence of some phenomenon is less typical or freq
uent. Hence, when we say that a Theme is marked, we are saying that it is less typical or frequent for it to be realid that way. And the opposite for unmarked Themes. And, whenever we talk about marked or unmarked Themes, we are referring only to the topical Theme, not the textual or interpersonal Theme.
Let's now e what the unmarked Themes are like for different clausal moods:
Declaratives: The unmarked Theme is the subject, as in: "Snow White picked her no everyday." All other realisations of topical Themes are marked, for example: "Her no, she loves to pick" (here, the complement, rather than the subject, is the topical Theme).
Interrogatives: For interrogatives, we need to parate polar from content interrogatives:
▪Polar: The unmarked Theme is a two-part Theme where the interpersonal Theme is realid by a finite element, and the topical Theme is realid by the subject: "Did Snow White pick her no?" All other realisations are marked.
▪Content: The unmarked Theme is the wh-question word, as in: "Why did Snow White pi
ck her no?" All other realisations are marked.
Imperatives: Like interrogatives, we also need to make a distinction between two types of imperatives -- inclusive and exclusive imperatives.
