功能语法SFG10 textual theme

Theme and Rheme

Theme is a clause-initial element. Theme is

always

that which comes first in

the clause (in English).

?

Theme

provides

the

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 clause properly takes off.

?

The thematic portion can have as many as three elements:

Textual Theme

< /p>

（

structural

）

Conjunctions

Conjunctive adjuncts

Wh- relatives [? text., ? top.]

Interpersonal Theme

Vocatives

Modal adjuncts

Finite elements

Wh-question words [? int., ? top.]

Topical Theme

Participant

Circumstance

Process

Where Theme stops and Rheme starts. Here is the golden rule:

In the clause, you start at the beginning and keep on searching until you find the

Topical

Theme.

Once

you've

done

that,

you

have

your

Thematic

portion.

Everything

else

after

the

topical

Theme

is

the

Rheme.

The

Thematic

portion,

therefore, is everything from the start of the clause 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 clause. If you encounter any of the following:

Continuatives (eg,

umm, yeah, ...

)

?

Conjunctions (eg,

and, or, but

)

?

Conjunctive adjuncts (eg,

however, therefore, because, ...

)

?

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

clause

initiated

by

a

wh-relative

(which

is

both

a

textual

and

topical

Theme),

everything else after the wh-relative would be Rheme. For example:

The official,

?

who

Txt/Top Theme

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

)

?

slept on a meeting, ?

lost his job.

Rheme

label them as

Interpersonal

Themes.

Again,

make an

exception for wh- question words. These are both

interpersonal

and

topical Themes squeezed into one. Example:

Why

did the official sleep?

Int/Top Theme

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 clause. Here's a simple example with all three types of Themes:

Well,

Sir,

Txt

Int

Please note that topical Themes are

obligatory

for all clauses. The other Theme types

(textual and interpersonal) are optional.

This

means that, sometimes,

you may

even

need to recover ellipsed elements in analysis. For example, in:

Superman bit Mr Bean, and was sorry about it.

We have two clauses, the topical Theme of the first clause is

clause’s topical Theme is ellipsed “he”:

and

was sorry about it

Txt

(Top)

Rheme

why

do you sleep on my meeting?

Int/Top

Rheme