Tom Bartlett On Given And Theme

Tom Bartlett wrote to Sysfling on Mon Jun 17 2019 at 18:14:23:

From the posts so far, what we are talking about is textuality rather than Theme per se, and this seems to be a better starting point. 

At least three different functional structures have been introduced: initial/early position in the clause; formal marking of topicality or aboutness; and given-ness. 

With regard to the last, Mick rightly points out that Given and Theme do not always correspond by SFL definitions, but it is worth bearing in mind that the Prague definition of tema was something close to the most given element (i.e. the element having the least communicative dynamism), and this was the basis of the original formulation of thematic progression, rather than Halliday's Theme, which produces very different (and potentially complementary rather than conflicting) results. …

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, none of these three is a (multivariate) "functional structure".  Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 451): 

A multivariate structure is a configuration of different functional relationships, like  Theme + Rheme, Mood + Residue + Moodtag, or Actor + Process + Recipient + Goal.  Note that, although it is the functions that are labelled, the structure actually consists of the relationships among them.

With regard to Bartlett's trio:

• 'initial/early position in the clause' is how Theme is realised on the syntagmatic axis;
• 'formal marking of topicality or aboutness' refers to the realisation of topical Theme at a lower rank; and
• 'givenness' refers to the feature 'given' in the system of INFORMATION.

[2] More importantly, it is worth bearing in mind that, in SFL theory, Given and Theme are functionally distinct and are selected independently. The theoretical advantage of making the distinction is demonstrated by the systematic alternations of identifying clauses:

(a) decoding Trump

(which is Trump?)

operative voice:

Trump	is	the stable genius
Medium Identified Token	Process	Range Identifier Value
Theme	Rheme
Given		New

receptive voice:

the stable genius	is	Trump
Range Identifier Value	Process	Medium Identified Token
Theme	Rheme
New		Given

(b) encoding the stable genius

(which is the stable genius?)

operative voice:

Trump	is	the stable genius
Agent Identifier Token	Process	Medium Identified Value
Theme	Rheme
New		Given

receptive voice:

the stable genius	is	Trump
Medium Identified Value	Process	Agent Identifier Token
Theme	Rheme
Given		New