Article published in:
Grammar, usage and discourse: Functional studies offered to Kristin Davidse
Edited by Lieven Vandelanotte, Wout Van Praet and Lieselotte Brems
[English Text Construction 10:2] 2017
► pp. 274–297

Theme and prosody

Redundancy or meaning making?

| Cardiff University
In a series of extremely influential articles published in the 1960s, Halliday illustrated that what the Prague School labelled as Theme was formed out of two separate but related systems which he labelled Theme and Information (1967a & b). However, as Information is a system grounded in spoken language, this separation has had the unfortunate consequence of prioritising the study of Theme in written language. The Thematic structure of spoken language and especially the interplay of Theme and intonation has been consequently neglected. The prosodic system of Key (Brazil 1997) functions like Theme to ground a message in its local context and signal how it is to be developed. This study, by uniquely examining the interplay between Theme and Key, is able to identify a number of novel meanings, the most significant of which is a focus on the enabling of Interpersonal meanings. By so doing, it illustrates that the full semogenetic meaning making potential of Theme, as an unfolding orientating device in spoken discourse, can only be revealed by examining the prosodic realisation of the Theme choices.
Keywords: interpersonal meaning, Key, prosody, spoken discourse, Theme
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction: What does Theme do?
  • 2.What is Theme?
  • 3.Prosody, Theme and Key
  • 4.The corpus
  • 5.Discussion: The relation between high Key and marked/unmarked Theme
    • 5.1Category A: Opening of turn
    • 5.2Category B: A new paratone
    • 5.3Category C: Unexpected direction
    • 5.4Category D: To project contrast or specify an individual or action
    • 5.5Category E: Direct attention towards the consequences of a future action
    • 5.6Category H: Assessment of desirability
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 19 October 2017
https://doi.org/10.1075/etc.10.2.05ogr
References
Bäcklund, Ingegerd
1992 Theme in English telephone conversation. Language Sciences 14 (4): 545–565. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Berry, Margaret
1996 What is Theme? A(nother) personal view. In Meaning and Form: Systemic Functional Interpretations, Robin P. Fawcett, Margaret Berry, Christopher Butler & Huang Guowen (eds). Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1–64.Google Scholar
2013 Contentful and contentlight subject themes in informal spoken English and formal written English. In Choice in Language: Applications in Text Analysis, Gerard O’Grady, Tom Bartlett & Lise Fontaine (eds). Sheffield: Equinox, 243–268.Google Scholar
Boersma, Paul & David Weenink
2010 Praat doing Phonetics by Computer. Computer programme. Version 5.3.52.Google Scholar
Brazil, David
1997 The Communicative Value of Intonation in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Daneš, František
1972 Order of elements and sentence intonation. In Intonation, Dwight Bolinger (ed.). Harmondsworth: Penguin, 216–232.Google Scholar
Davidse, Kristin
1987 M. A. K. Halliday’s Functional Grammar and the Prague School. In Functionalism in Linguistics, René Dirven & Vilem Fried (eds). Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 39–79. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Downing, Angela
1991 An alternative approach to Theme: A systemic-functional perspective. Word 42 (2): 119–143. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Firbas, Jan
1987 On the delimination of the Theme in Functional Sentence Perspective. In Functionalism in Linguistics, René Dirven & Vilem Fried (eds). Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 137–156. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Forey, Gail & Geoff Thompson
2008 Text Type and Structure. London: Equinox.Google Scholar
Forey, Gail & Nicholas Sampson
2017 Textual metafunction and Theme: What’s ‘it’ about. In The Routledge Handbook of Systemic Functional Linguistics, Tom Bartlett & Gerard O’Grady (eds). London: Routledge, 131–145.Google Scholar
Fries, Peter H.
1981 On the status of Theme in English: Arguments from discourse. Forum Linguisticum 6 (1): 1–38.Google Scholar
1995 Themes, method of developments and texts. In On Subject and Theme: A Discourse Functional Perspective, Ruqaiya Hasan & Peter H. Fries (eds). Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 317–360. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ghadessy, Mohsen
1995 Thematic Development in English Texts. London: Pinter.Google Scholar
Glaser, Barney G. & Anselm L. Strauss
1967 The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. Chicago, IL: Aldine.Google Scholar
Gómez González, Mária de los Ángeles
2001 The Theme-Topic Interface: Evidence from English. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K
1967a Notes on transitivity and theme in English: Part 1. Journal of Linguistics 3 (2): 199–244. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
1967b Intonation and Grammar in British English. The Hague: Mouton. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
1994 Introduction to Functional Grammar, 2nd ed. London: Arnold.Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K. & Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen
2004 Introduction to Functional Grammar, 3rd ed. London: Arnold.Google Scholar
2014 Halliday’s Introduction to Functional Grammar, 4th ed. London: Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K. & William S. Greaves
2008 Intonation in the Grammar of English. London: Equinox.Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K. & James R. Martin
1993 Writing Science: Literacy and Discursive Power. London: Falmer Press.Google Scholar
Henderson, Eugénie J. A
1971 The Indispensable Foundation: A Selection from the Writings of Henry Sweet. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Martin, James R.
1992 English Text: System and Structure. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Mathiessen, Christian
1995 THEME as an enabling resource in ideational ‘knowledge’ construction. In Thematic Development in English Texts, Mohsen Ghadessy (ed.). London: Pinter, 20–54.Google Scholar
Matthiessen, Christian M. I. M., Teruya Kazuhiro & Marvin Lam
2009 Key Terms in Systemic Functional Linguistics. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Nakajima, Shin’ya & James F. Allan
1993 A study of prosody and discourse structure in cooperative dialogues. Phonetica 501: 197–210. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
O’Grady, Gerard
2010 A Grammar of Spoken English Discourse: The Intonation of Increments. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
2013 An investigation of how intonation signals information structure. In Systemic Phonology: Recent Studies in English, Wendy S. Bowcher & Bradley A. Smith (eds). London: Equinox, 27–52.Google Scholar
2016 Given/New: What do the terms refer to? A first (small) step. English Text Construction 9 (1): 9–32. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2017 Intonation and systemic functional linguistics: The way forward. In The Routledge Handbook of Systemic Functional Linguistics, Tom Bartlett & Gerard O’Grady (eds). London: Routledge, 146–162.Google Scholar
Tench, Paul
1990 The Roles of Intonation in English Discourse. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
1996 The Intonation Systems of English. London: Cassell.Google Scholar
Thompson, Geoff
2007 Unfolding Theme: The development of clausal and textual perspectives on Theme. In Continuing Discourse on Language: A Functional Perspective, Vol. 21, Ruqaiya Hasan, Christian Matthiessen & Jonathan J. Webster (eds). London: Equinox, 671–696.Google Scholar
Thompson, Geoff & Susan Thompson
2007 Theme: Subject and the unfolding of text. In Text, Type and Texture, Gail Forey & Geoff Thompson (eds). London: Equinox, 45–69.Google Scholar
Wichmann, Anne
2000 Intonation in Text and Discourse. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 5 other publications

Bartlett, Tom & Gerard O’Grady
2019. Language characterology and textual dynamics: a crosslinguistic exploration in English and Scottish Gaelic. Acta Linguistica Hafniensia 51:2 ► pp. 124 ff. Crossref logo
Davies, Eirian C.
2017. The significance of theme. English Text Construction 10:2 ► pp. 298 ff. Crossref logo
O’Grady, Gerard
2020. Is there a role for prosody within register studies. Language, Context and Text. The Social Semiotics Forum 2:1 ► pp. 59 ff. Crossref logo
Van Praet, Wout & Gerard O'Grady
2018. The prosody of specification: Discourse intonational cues to setting up a variable. Journal of Pragmatics 135 ► pp. 87 ff. Crossref logo
Vandelanotte, Lieven
2017. Favourite puzzles. English Text Construction 10:2 ► pp. 187 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 08 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.