THEMATIC AND INFORMATION

STRUCTURES

1) THE CLAUSE AS MESSAGE: THEMATIC STRUCTURES

Cohesive devices overtly manifest textual continuity but cohesion is not a sufficient condition for texture. Segments of

discourse are also organized in terms of information structure so thematic patterns are as important as cohesion for texture.

Some of the factors and constraints that make thematisation decisive for the decoding of discourse are especially observed

in spoken language.

FOCUS → a marker of information units, the necessity to decode in time, or the limits of memory, to mention but a few.

Discourse production necessarily requires the choice of a point of departure that will provide a co-text for the interpretation

of subsequent segments by reference to it. One crucial aspect of thematic structures is that they are perceived within the

boundaries of the sentence but their significance is discerned only across sentences.

The producer organizes the content of the sentence in order to establish the point of departure of the clausal message and

to highlight that constituent which is presented as new information, usually at the end of the sentence, where the focus is

laid normally. The beginning point is called the theme, which in English coincides with the initial element of the sentence. It

is that with which the sentence is concerned. The remainder of the message is called the rheme.

Like the majority of textual categories, theme is identified structurally (first position in the sentence) but is defined

functionally. The theme is the element that organizes the sentence as a message, what the sentence is about.

A variety of constituents can appear at the beginning of the sentence but some distinctions have to be made in order to

identify the element that functions as theme.

Halliday distinguishes three components of a multiple theme in reference to the three structures that converge on the

sentence:

Textual element:

–Continuative themes (yes, well, now...)

–Structural themes → Conjunctions (and, when, in case...); relatives (who, when, whatever...)

–Conjunctive themes → Conjunctive adverbials (in other words, however, then...)

Interpersonal element:

–Modal theme → Disjuncts (probably, to be honest, broadly speaking...)

–Finite verb in a yes/no question (polar interrogation)

–Vocative

Ideational element:

–Topical theme → is distinguished from the rest because of its representational function

Well but in other words James apparently the defendant was guilty.

Continuative Structural Conjunctive Vocative Modal Topical RHEME

TEXTUAL INTERPERSONAL REPRESENT.

THEME

In complex clauses, the basic theme-rheme pattern can equally explain how the message is organized. Structurally, we

have a main clause and a subordinate clause whose order can be reversed for thematic purposes; basically, to convey

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THEMATIC AND INFORMATION

STRUCTURES

1) THE CLAUSE AS MESSAGE: THEMATIC STRUCTURES

Cohesive devices overtly manifest textual continuity but cohesion is not a sufficient condition for texture. Segments of discourse are also organized in terms of information structure so thematic patterns are as important as cohesion for texture. Some of the factors and constraints that make thematisation decisive for the decoding of discourse are especially observed in spoken language. FOCUS → a marker of information units, the necessity to decode in time, or the limits of memory, to mention but a few. Discourse production necessarily requires the choice of a point of departure that will provide a co-text for the interpretation of subsequent segments by reference to it. One crucial aspect of thematic structures is that they are perceived within the boundaries of the sentence but their significance is discerned only across sentences. The producer organizes the content of the sentence in order to establish the point of departure of the clausal message and to highlight that constituent which is presented as new information, usually at the end of the sentence, where the focus is laid normally. The beginning point is called the theme , which in English coincides with the initial element of the sentence. It is that with which the sentence is concerned. The remainder of the message is called the rheme. Like the majority of textual categories, theme is identified structurally (first position in the sentence) but is defined functionally. The theme is the element that organizes the sentence as a message , what the sentence is about. A variety of constituents can appear at the beginning of the sentence but some distinctions have to be made in order to identify the element that functions as theme. Halliday distinguishes three components of a multiple theme in reference to the three structures that converge on the sentence: Textual element:

Continuative themes ( yes, well, now... )
Structural themes → Conjunctions ( and, when, in case... ); relatives ( who, when, whatever... )
Conjunctive themes → Conjunctive adverbials ( in other words, however, then... ) Interpersonal element:
Modal theme → Disjuncts ( probably, to be honest, broadly speaking... )
Finite verb in a yes/no question (polar interrogation)
Vocative Ideational element:
Topical theme → is distinguished from the rest because of its representational function Well but in other words James apparently the defendant was guilty. Continuative Structural Conjunctive Vocative Modal Topical RHEME TEXTUAL INTERPERSONAL REPRESENT. THEME In complex clauses, the basic theme-rheme pattern can equally explain how the message is organized. Structurally, we have a main clause and a subordinate clause whose order can be reversed for thematic purposes; basically, to convey

different implicatures as to what the topic is and its connection with previous co-text. When the burglar broke into the house he disarmed the alarm. THEME 1 RHEME 1 Structural Topical RHEME 2 Topical RHEME 3 THEME 2 THEME 3 2) THE CONCEPT OF GIVEN / NEW : INTONATION AND SYNTAX Drawing upon Halliday's functional framework, Leech (1983) has proposed a two-fold classification of pragmatic principles: I) Interpersonal rhetoric: Cooperative principle and politeness principle II) Textual rhetoric: (regulates the way messages are constructed) → principles of processibility, clarity, economy and expressivity. Processibility Principle → recommends that the text should be presented in a manner that makes it easy for the receiver to decode in time → A text is essentially linear and time-bound → Consequently, in producing a text we have to make decisions as to (1) how to segment the message into units, (2) how to assign degrees of prominence or subordination to different parts of the message, and (3) how to order the parts of a sentence. Decisions articulated in maxims:

Maxim of end-focus → recommends that, if the rules of language allow it, the part of the tone unit with new information will be at the end of the unit and receive prominence → depends of prior choices as to the segmentation of the discourse chain into units.
Maxim of end-weight → recommends that less complex constituents precede more complex ones → For this reason, the characteristic English sentence has a predominance of right-branching over left-branching. Some syntactic processes such as extraposition precisely serve end-focus in that they permit to place complex constituents at the end of the sentence: It was surprising that they wrote such fine poetry. → Focus on poetry (new information); end of the tone unit (Given information) That they wrote such fine poetry was surprising. → Focus on surprising (new information); end of the tone unit (Given information) End-focus and end-weight are mutually supporting because a complex constituent is likely to contain new information marked by focus. Since new information usually needs to be stated in more detail than given information (completely given information is often elliptical), rhemes will regularly be more complex than themes. On the other hand, placing very complex constituents at the beginning can challenge the receiver's memory. Features of theme and focus: THEME FOCUS
NON FOCAL
GIVEN INFORMATION
BASIS FOR PREDICATION
IDENTIFYING

- INTONATION NUCLEUS

- NEW INFORMATION

- PROMINENT SEMANTIC UNIT

- LAST LEXICAL UNIT

A) FRONTING

Fronting is the movement of some clause element to initial position to make it the theme → Also called thematisation (produces a marked theme by starting the message with a constituent that is regularly non-initial (eg A rip-off I call it ) → The

of their identifying function. The identifier typically receives the main focus whatever the clause order. The identifier ( the cease-fire ) contains the new information while the identified ( What the Serbian troops violated on Tuesday ) is given. Both clauses can be wh- clauses: What you see is what you get. Relatives other than what, where, how, when , may be used when the wh-clause is subject complement: Venice is where I want to be. Other restrictions affecting who, whose, why, how , are compensated by paraphrases of the type the one who, the reason why, and so on: The one who called was a CEO. This thematic process complements clefting by allowing focus on the predicator more easily: What he did was (to) test my eyes. Wh- clefts have two functions: they introduce a new topic, and at the same time produce cohesion by reference and cohesion. It should be noted that the typical effect of cleft-sentences is putting the focus near the front of the utterance while wh -clefts usually maintain end-focus. In this sense both are complementary. D) POSTPONEMENT Postponement is the movement of some clause constituent to end position. The reasons to postpone a clause element or part of it can be to maintain the thematic progression or achieve end-weight. Shifting some constituent to the end of the sentence may involve some further change. The di-transitive complementation (SPOO) of verbs such as tell, offer, blame, or envy can be reversed: (a) The firm offered the young lawyer a partnership. SPOiOd: The agent and benefactive are known, so the focus on the affected is justified by its new information. (b) The firm offered a partnership to the young lawyer. Simple reversal of objects entail changing Oi into Oprep but this reversal puts end-focus on known information: the young lawyer, so this wording would be more appropriate when the affected is given and the benefactive is new: The firm offered the partnership to a young lawyer. This information pattern would make it frequent to have a reference pronoun as affected: The firm offered it to a young lawyer. (c) The young lawyer was offered a partnership by the firm. E) EXTRAPOSITION Extraposition involves postponement and substitution. Either a clausal subject or object is shifted to end position and a pronoun will occupy its place in the sentence. Clausal subjects and objects can be realized by finite or non-finite clauses and in these cases extraposition is the norm since it meets the demands of end-focus and end-weight: (a) It was doubtful that the results achieved were worth the effort (SPC) Extraposed clausal subjects are most frequently that- clauses → Other nominal clauses are also extraposed, both finite: It is doubtful whether the results will be worth the effort and non-finite: It was risky to transfer the money to the Swiss bank account. (b) The host felt it his duty to serve cocktails to his guests personally. (SPOC) Extraposition of the object in complex-transitive patterns is obligatory with clausal objects realized by that -clauses and to - infinitive clauses but optional with ing- clause objects (c) Selling those futures was a bad move. (SPC) ing- clauses are rarely extraposed, and when they are, they seldom receive focus, so that they appear as a sort of noun tag rather than an extraposed subject: It was a bad move, selling those futures. F) PASSIVIZATION Passivization is doubly useful in thematic terms because it enables the speaker to either avoid mentioning the agent (agentless passive) or to place the agent in focal position. (a) At the height of noon the caravan reached the well. → In the active pattern the theme usually coincides with the agent

as subject and is marked prosodically while the affected is marked with end-focus. (b) At the height of noon the well was reached by the caravan. → In agentive passive the agent is new and marked with end-focus while the affected becomes subject and remains unmarked. (c) At the height of noon the well was reached. → In agentless passive the subject may be omitted because it is known but it may well be unknown or irrelevant: Pollock's paintings were hardly understood. In either case the result is focus on the predicator. G) EXISTENTIAL CLAUSES Existential clauses allow speakers to produce utterances where all information is relatively new and avoid the clumsiness of focal new subjects. The pattern is: (unstressed) there + be + (indefinite) NP: (a) A desert was a ahead of the expedition → There was a desert ahead of the expedition. (b) Little remained to be done → There remained little to be done. Existential sentences in which the notional subject has been moved to the position after the verb. This is frequent to maintain end-focus, end-weight and to keep the progression from given to new information. (c) The purloined letter was there → There was the purloined letter. This is not existential there but inversion subject-predicator → There is stressed because of its locative meaning and the NP only receives secondary focus because it is given information ( the purloined letter ). H) EMOTIVE EMPHASIS Emotive emphasis is possible in spoken language by means of stress and in written language by means of emphatic do or adverbial intensifiers: I did pass the grammar quiz). This emphasis is not contrastive because no implied meanings arise as to tense, polarity or modality as they do in operator contrast: I did pass the grammar quiz (though you have doubts). 3) INFORMATION STATUS The general explanation of the progression of information is based on the speaker's hypothesis about the hearer's assumptions regarding given-new (information) distinctions. The elucidation of semantic progression of texts may seem impracticable unless some limits are established: what sort of information is given, the ways in which some information is given, and the degrees of givenness. PRINCE (1981) → Related concepts of givenness → Posited is the speaker's assumption that the hearer can expect that some particular item will occur in some particular position in the sentence. This expectation can be predictable ( predictability ) because somehow the hearer may have some particular thing in his/her mind (something is salient → saliency ). Furthermore, if something can be assumed to be part of the hearer's consciousness, then the speaker can venture that the hearer has some assumptions and can draw some inferences ( shared knowledge ). Text → <<a set of instructions from a speaker to a hearer on how to construct a particular discourse-model. The model will contain discourse entities (referents, individuals, classes or concepts, represented by NPs in a text), attributes, and links between entities.>> → Distinction given-new (applied to discourse entities) – three basic types: new, inferable, and evoked.

New entities are those that the speaker introduces for the first time. The speaker may have to create a new entity ( brand-new entities, introduced by indefinite expressions: a book I read, a singles party ) or may assume that the hearer has a corresponding entity in his/her own model and only has to place it into the discourse model ( unused entity: Yeats, or Heaney addressed to a student of American literature).
Inferable entities → those entities that the hearer can deduce from other inferred or evoked entities ( kettle from brewing tea ).
Evoked entities → already part of the discourse model, can be evoked on textual grounds, either because they

We are not wrong in what we are doing. If we are wrong, the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong. If we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong. If we are wrong, God Almighty is wrong. If we are wrong, Jesus of Nazareth was merely a Utopian dreamer who never came down to earth. New information (though not the end-focus of the utterances): Supreme, Constitution, God and Jesus → Known/Given information: wrong Connection can also be achieved rhematically → by associations between rhemes: ...although I hope that this conjecture may perhaps help us to get a little nearer to the truth, (1) I do not dare even to hope that it is true; (2) indeed, I fear that it contains very little truth. (3) It certainly contains neither the final truth, (4) nor the whole truth of the matter. (5) 1 st^ person pronoun I → indicates apparent thematic connection, but it is not the topic (the meaning is not <>); Mainly rhematic connection ; Reiteration of true/truth in final position; Contrastive focus on the operator ( it is true ), on the modifiers ( very little truth ), or on the qualifier ( the whole truth of the matter ). It is not surprising that thematic connection be the norm because of the typically given character of themes. However, long passages show that the particular form of progression varies throughout texts (in the case of (written) speeches paragraph divisions obey structural and topical reasons but may alter the intentions of the speaker). We have seen how the connection between two information units is a sort of chain link and that a number of links form a sequence. Now we can look at the shapes sequences can take. Four discourse designs have been identified:

Step → (simplest discourse strategy) consists in organizing the text step by step , usually according a temporal sequence ( first... second... and finally ) → Especially frequent in instructive texts (intended to plan actions linked and dependent on each other) → Also in descriptive, narrative, and expository texts.

Chain → (variation of the step pattern, less predictable) discourse proceeds from point to point in a less linear manner: may progress, move sideways, or double back → Particularly suitable for argumentation, and also frequent in narrative or expository texts.

Stack → also displays unity but instead of linear progression we can identify a carefully plan that accumulates layers on top of a basis (the topic sentence or thematic base ) → Strategy particularly suited for argumentation and exposition.

Balance → also suitable for argumentation and exposition → displays a careful plan that is developed by contrasting ideas usually in the form of advantages and objections, or conflicting behaviours.

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THEMATIC AND INFORMATION

STRUCTURES

1) THE CLAUSE AS MESSAGE: THEMATIC STRUCTURES

- INTONATION NUCLEUS

- NEW INFORMATION

- PROMINENT SEMANTIC UNIT

- LAST LEXICAL UNIT

A) FRONTING