Types of Theme

            Reflecting the three-dimensional metafunctional structure of the clause, there can be identified three different types of elements of clause structure that can get to be theme: topical, interpersonal and textual.

Textual Metafunction

Textual Metafunction

The textual metafunction of language is an interpretation of language in its function as a message (Halliday: 1994:37). In addition Matthiessen and Halliday (1997) stated that:

The textual metafunction is concerned with the creation of text — with the presentation of ideational and interpersonal meanings as information that can be shared by speaker and listener in text unfolding in context. One of the major textual systems is THEME, the resource for setting up a local context for a clause by selecting a local point of departure in the flow of information (or perhaps rather 'swell of information', since it is not a uniform flow)

At a clause level, the textual metafunction is concerned with how intra clausal elements are organized to make meanings. The textual metafunction of clause in its function as message is realised by the theme system of clause.

As mentioned in chapter I, in the textual metafunction, a clause is analyzed into Theme and Rheme system. The theme system of the clause is represented by the thematic structure of a clause.

The Thematic Structure consists of two constituents, namely, Theme and Rheme. The definition of Theme given by Halliday (1985: 37) is that Theme is given information serving as “the point of departure” of a message. The definition of theme is also reintroduced by Halliday (1994) the Theme is the element which serves as the point of departure of the message. In addition Gerot and Wignell (1994) state that Theme is what the clause is going to be about. Since typically departed from places with which are familiar, the theme typically contains familiar, or given information which has already been mentioned somewhere in the text or is familiar from the context. The identification of theme is based on order: theme is the element which comes first in the clause.

In Prague school terminology, Rheme is the part in which the Theme is developed (Halliday, 1994: 37). Therefore, the Rheme accompanies the Theme in a common clause structure, where in an English clause the Theme is always in the initial position and it is followed by the Rheme (Halliday, 1994: 37). For the Rheme identification, Eggins (2004: 300) adds a criterion; Rheme is everything that is not the Theme.

Take for example, The two lovers met in a wood near Marya’s house, the theme is the two lovers and the rest of the clause, met in a wood near Marya’s house, serves the function as rheme. Theme – rheme analysis allows us to identify which information is to be given high priority in a particular discourse.

In an analysis of a thematic structure of a text, it is possible to examine language in terms of three metafunctions; the textual, interpersonal and topical.

Clause as message

 Clause as message

The clause, Halliday argues (1994), is organized as a message by having a special status assigned to one part of it. In English clause, the initial position is meaningful in the construction of the clause as message (Halliday 1994). The structure is called the thematic structure. One element in the clause is enunciated as the theme; this then combines with the remainder so that the two parts together constitute a message (Halliday: 1994).

As a message, the clause comprises two parts: the Theme, which “serves as the point of departure of the message” (Halliday: 1994) and the Rheme, which “Non-Theme – where the presentation moves after the point of departure; what is presented in the local context set up by Theme” (Halliday: 1994). Based on the theory of Systemic Functional Grammar proposed by Halliday (1994), a message consists of a Theme combined with a Rheme. Theme is what the clause is going to be about (Gerot and Wignell: 1994: 103).

Look at the following example from Halliday (1994: 39): There is difference in meaning between a halfpenny is the smallest English coin, where a halfpenny is Theme (I’ll tell you about a halfpenny) and the smallest English coin is a halfpenny, where the smallest English coin is Theme (I’ll tell you about the smallest English coin’). As stated by Halliday that the difference may be characterized as ‘Thematic’; the two clauses differ in their choice of Theme. By glossing them in this way, as ‘I’ll tell you about ……’, we can feel that they are two different messages.