A fi nal note on identifying Theme

In this chapter, I have worked essentially with the criteria for identifying Theme set out in Halliday and Matthiessen (2014, Chapter 3). The key criterion is that Theme goes up to and includes the fi rst experiential element in the clause. However, many discussions of Theme in text, even within a Systemic Functional framework, push the boundary of Theme further in certain cases. The basic criterion for analysts who take this line is that Theme should normally include an unmarked Theme: this generally means that, if there is a marked Theme, the following Subject is also included. Halliday and Matthiessen (2014: 131fn) in fact have a category of ‘displaced Theme’ that refers to Subject following certain kinds of marked Themes. This covers some of these cases, though not all.) In this approach, the marked Theme is seen as a

‘Contextual Frame’ or ‘Orienting Theme’, which typically has the function of changing the textual framework in some way; the Subject Theme, on the other hand, typically serves to maintain the topic of the text. For some analysts, ‘Contextual Frames’ include not only circumstantial Adjuncts and subordinate clauses in initial position, but also, for example, reporting clauses in initial position since it is the Subject of the reported clause that, in many cases, serves the primary continuative function (compare 6.7.4 above). The approach also includes the interpersonal clauses discussed in 6.7.5 as orienting Themes, as well as interpersonal and textual Adjuncts, on the grounds that these all share the function of preparing for the true starting point of the clause, the Subject Theme. Figure 6.41 shows a sample of the Theme analyses from earlier in the chapter analysed in this way, for comparison.

The disagreement over where to draw the boundary in such cases is partly a practical issue: some analysts argue that the extended Theme allows them to trace more convincingly the way thematic choices contribute to signalling the organization of the text. It is also partly a theoretical issue, hinging on diff erent views of what the function of Theme is: so far, it has not been possible to arrive at a precise enough defi nition of Theme to provide a secure basis on which to agree about how to identify it. The approach to identifi cation illustrated in Figure 6.41 does not solve all the problems in working with thematic choices in text; and, indeed, it adds a number of its own. One alternative possibility that could be proposed is that it may be more revealing to track Subjects through the text as a separate ‘thread’ of interpersonal

continuity, in terms of what entities are represented as responsible for the validity of the successive propositions. This Subject thread may at many points confl ate with the thematic thread, and at other points diverge from it; and these patterns of confl ation and divergence may be signifi cant in how the text unfolds. It is probably only through large-scale analysis of Theme (and Subject) in many texts and many registers that we can hope to pin down more accurately what Theme does.

Last night

Figure 6.41 An alternative way of identifying Theme

Exercise 6.1

Identify the Theme in the following sentences. Decide which kind of clause is involved: declarative, WH-interrogative, yes/no interrogative, imperative, exclamative, minor or elliptical. Also decide whether the Theme is marked or unmarked (label Adjunct as marked Theme in declarative clauses as well as in other clause types).

1 This was Bono’s fi rst interview in two years.

2 In this same year, he also met Chester Kallman.

3 What are you currently reading?

4 Don’t you feel more relaxed already?

5 Print your name and address on a piece of paper.

6 More heads at independent schools are considering testing their pupils for drugs.

7 Ever wondered where your favourite pop star is?

8 How many times a week do you buy the Guardian?

9 Actions which are inconsistent with an individual’s usual behaviour and which give rise to some concern may be an indication of psychological distress.

10 For enquiries relating to this off er please phone 0227 773111.

11 Don’t forget to look out for new winning numbers every day!

12 With a CharityCard tax-free giving is easier than ever!

13 Out of the pub came a small, intent-looking woman with a helmet of dun-coloured hair.

14 What sort of car are you thinking of buying?

15 A £2 million, two-hour adaptation of Emma, Austen’s fourth novel, planned for ITV’s autumn season, will coincide with the release of a big budget Hollywood version in British cinemas.

Exercise 6.2

Identify the Theme in the following sentences. Decide whether a thematizing structure is involved, and if so which kind: thematic equatives, predicated Theme or preposed Theme. Identify any marked alternatives.

1 What often happens is that a new theory is devised that is really an extension of the previous theory.

2 It’s not only our engine that’s refi ned.

3 These mass parties, they lose touch with the people.

4 This is what I have attempted to do in this book.

5 All I want is a room somewhere.

6 What we didn’t realize was that he’d already left.

7 The most important thing to remember when you’re roasting a duck is that it must be perfectly dry before it goes in the oven.

8 That book you were talking about, is it the one that came out last year?

9 It was with an infi nite feeling of tolerance she allowed that other people had need of these struts and supports.

10 Eating at home was what they would have to learn to do.

Exercise 6.3

Identify the T-unit Themes in the following sentences.

1 If she were to survive, all her energy must be harnessed for the next painful inch.

2 The workmen waved, and she waved back, conspicuous on her high ridge.

3 While drinking it, she read the paper.

4 He was killed in 1937, fi ghting in Spain for the Republican cause.

5 When talking about people in industrialized countries with problems in reading or writing, it is important to stress that they are ordinary people.

6 As long as the Chancellor funds tax cuts by cutting spending he could assuage the City’s fears while making it even more diffi cult for Labour to match the Conservatives cut for cut.

7 To fi nd out more about this unique, new way of giving and how you can make the most of your generosity, just call free or use the coupon provided.

8 Eventually, when the region got small enough, it would be spinning fast enough to balance the attraction of gravity, and in this way disk-like rotating galaxies were born.

Exercise 6.4

Identify the Themes in the following sentences. If any are multiple Themes, label the thematic elements as interpersonal, textual or experiential.

1 Now at fi rst sight this might seem to be contradictory.

2 However, I was held up on my way to the airport by heavy rain.

3 Surprisingly, however, this tendency has declined in the mid 1970s.

4 And no doubt he’ll deny everything.

5 Well, perhaps he simply isn’t interested in the same kind of things.

6 The fi rst three letters, of course, were his mother’s initials.

7 Oh, Alice, you are all right, aren’t you?

8 The coming of print in Europe at this point in history, then, appears to have played a very dynamic role in the way people think about and read texts.

Exercise 6.5

Here is an extract from a school textbook on history. Identify the T-unit Themes (which have been numbered as a guide), and consider how they refl ect the ‘conceptual map’ of the text.

(1) Although the United States participated heavily in World War I, the nature of that participation was fundamentally diff erent from what it became in World War II. (2a) The earlier confl ict was a one-ocean war for the Navy and a one-theatre war for the Army; (2b) the latter was a two-ocean war for the Navy and one of fi ve major theatres for the Army. (3a) In both wars a vital responsibility of the Navy was escort-of-convoy and anti-submarine work, (3b) but in the 1917–1918 confl ict it never clashed with the enemy on the surface; (3c) whilst between 1941 and 1945 it fought some twenty major and countless minor engagements with the Japanese Navy. (4a) American soldiers who engaged in World War I were taken overseas in transports and landed on docks or in protected harbours; (4b) in World War II the art of amphibious warfare had to be revived and developed, since assault troops were forced to fi ght their way ashore. (5a) Airpower, in the earlier confl ict, was still inchoate and almost negligible; (5b) in the latter it was a determining factor. (6a) In World War I the battleship still reigned queen of the sea, as she had in changing forms since the age of Drake, (6b) and Battle Line fought with tactics inherited from the age of sail; (6c) but in World War II the capital naval force was the air-craft carrier task group, for which completely new tactics had to be devised.

Exercise 6.6

Below is the beginning of a charity appeal letter. This is written as if addressed to an individual, although of course it is sent to many people. Identify the T-unit Themes and group them according to the kind of entity that they refer to. Can you see any patterns in the way Theme is deployed?

(1) You might wonder why three RSPCA Inspectors should be sitting in a van in the middle of the night, wide awake, just watching and waiting.

(2) For Inspectors in our Special Operations Unit (SOU), it’s all in a day’s work. (3) I lead the team, (3a) and I’d like to tell you about the extraordinary and sometimes heroic work they do.

(4) You probably haven’t heard of the SOU before. (5) That’s because we fi ght cruelty undercover and the success of our work depends on keeping our operations top secret. (6) But today, I’m going to tell you all about our work, because we need your help.

(7) There are eight of us in the SOU. (8) We’re plain-clothes Inspectors (8a) and we’re known as the Animal Squad. (9) Ours is a highly specialized job: (9a) we’re on the trail of criminals responsible for the worst kind of cruelty, where animals are exploited for profi t and so-called pleasure.

(10) We’ve all been uniformed Inspectors for at least fi ve years, (10a) so we’ve seen some pretty horrifi c things in our time, (10b) but nothing compares to the kind of vicious abuse we’re fi ghting against now.

(11) Take the men who dug badgers out of their sets, took shots at them and set their dogs on them. (12) Or the man who tried to smuggle parrots into Britain by stuffi ng them into cardboard tubes and sending them from Australia sealed in a box.

(13) Catching these kind of criminals and bringing them to justice is never easy.

…