THEMATIC AND INFORMATION STRUCTURES TEXTUAL EQUIVALENCE THEMATIC AND INFORMATION STRUCTURES

WORD ORDER WORD ORDER (linear arrangement of linguistic elements) : . textual strategy that controls information flow . contributes to the processing of information . contributes to the organization of messages at text level

Various formulations are available for expressing a given message, BUT speaker/writer will select one that makes the flow of information clearer in a given context. Necessary to think of CLAUSE as a MESSAGE, not just as a string of grammatical + lexical elements

CLAUSE AS MESSAGE CAN BE ANALYSED IN TERMS OF: THEMATIC INFORMATION STRUCTURE STRUCTURE

HALLIDAY’s APPROACH to THEMATIC STRUCTURE A CLAUSE CONSISTS OF TWO ELEMENTS: THEME: - the FIRST segment of the clause - what the clause is about (TOPIC) RHEME: - the SECOND segment of the clause - WHAT the speaker says ABOUT THE THEME - the GOAL of discourse

THEME acts as the information that it fulfils the communicative point of orientation by connecting point of departure by connecting back to previous stretches of forward and contributing to the discourse and maintaining a development of later stretches coherent point of view RHEME the information that it fulfils the communicative the speaker wants to convey purpose of the utterance

* CONJUNCTIONS = not part of PROPOSITIONAL MEANING of the message. EXAMPLE: Aristotle thought that the earth was stationary and that the sun, the moon, the planets and the stars moved in circular orbits about the earth. Aristotle (T1) thought that…(R1) He (T1) believed this… (R1) T1 Aristotle thought that t2 the earth R1 r2 was stationary (and that)* t3 the sun, the moon, the planets and the stars r3 moved in circular orbits about the earth. * CONJUNCTIONS = not part of PROPOSITIONAL MEANING of the message.

THEMATIC STRUCTURE: text organization and development If theme represents the speaker’s point of departure in each clause > more important organizational role than rheme. E.G. travel brochures in English often characterized by place adjuncts in theme position > location = natural point of orientation around which the text can be organized.

marked vs unmarked sequences MARKED THEME: EMPHASIS = TOPIC OF A CLAUSE OR ITS POINT OF DEPARTURE local, temporary prominence within the clause, BUT RHEME is prominent on an overall discourse level (core of the message) Thematic choice = selecting a clause element (subject, object, predicator, complement, adjunct) as theme and fronting it >>> speaker’s point of departure THE MORE OBLIGATORY AN ELEMENT, THE LESS MARKED and VICEVERSA. e.g. most ADJECTIVES before nouns in English > no particular meaning (not the result of choice) But TIME or PLACE ADVERBIALS > fairly mobile, so their fronting carries more meaning (result of choice). THE LESS EXPECTED A CHOICE, THE MORE MARKED IT IS > MORE MEANING (but strongly marked choices need to be motivated)

MARKED THEMES IN ENGLISH IDENTIFYING FRONTED THEME THEME PREDICATED THEME IDENTIFYING THEME

FRONTED THEME Fronting PREDICATOR Fronting OBJECT / TIME / PLACE adjunct (In China the book received a lot of publicity. / Three hours later a note came from the officer.) If repeated, it signals POINT OF ORIENTATION / METHOD OF DEVELOPMENT Fronting OBJECT / COMPLEMENT (A lot of publicity the book received in China; Well publicized the book was.) Fronting PREDICATOR (most marked choice) (They promised to Publicize the book in China, and publicize it they did.)

PREDICATED THEME Use of It-structure (also cleft structure) IT = empty subject: element placed near the beginning of a clause and interpreted as its theme Example: It was in China that the book received a lot of publicity > CONTRAST) of it-structure = what occurs after verb “be”

IDENTIFYING THEME NOMINALIZATION: using wh-structure (pseudo-cleft Examples: What the book received in China was a lot of publicity // What was received by the book in China was a lot of publicity IMPLICIT CONTRAST: The item in rheme position is the element (among many) I want my reader to pay attention to.

WHEN TRANSLATING: Sometimes the thematic pattern of the ST can be maintained in the TT without distorting the naturalness of the TL Sometimes it cannot be preserved without distorting the TT Sometimes Halliday’s model does not apply