Cover not available
Article published In:
Language, Context and Text
Vol. 4:2 (2022) ► pp.197–226

Theme as point of departure in English and Spanish casual conversation

A contrastive study

ORCID logo | Universidad Complutense de Madrid , Spain
This paper uses a trinocular approach – i.e. from below, from above and from roundabout – to describe Theme as point of departure (POD) in English and Spanish casual conversation (thus avoiding the more controversial ‘what-the-clause-is-about’ aspect of Theme). This research is part of a long-term contrastive study which includes the description of POD in academic writing and a crosslinguistic comparison of POD in academic writing and casual conversation. Among the main findings in this paper, the following stand out: (a) the identification of a conversational texture characterised by the interplay of textual and interpersonal strands of meaning; and (b) different POD arrangements of English and Spanish clauses in casual conversation, motivated by different ways of enacting communicative exchange.
Keywords: casual conversation, Theme, point of departure, systemic functional linguistics, English/Spanish contrasts, trinocular approach, texture, metafunctional interplay, discourse markers, gapped thematic progression
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data and methodology
  • 3.The view from below: Realisations of POD in casual conversation
  • 4.The view from above: Functions of POD in casual conversation
  • 5.The view from roundabout
    • 5.1Threads of meaning in casual conversation
    • 5.2Thematic progression in casual conversation
  • 6.Conclusion and pointers to the future
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 29 September 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/langct.21009.aru
References (71)
References
Alarcos Llorach, Emilio. 1987. Estudios de gramática funcional del español (3rd edition). Madrid: Gredos.Google Scholar
Andreau, Laura. 2020. Verbos derivados de saber y decir como marcadores discursivos en fragmentos descriptivos de la conversación coloquial. In Lucas Gagliardi, Dolores Álvarez Garriga & Lucía Zanfardini (eds.), Punto de encuentro: Estudios sobre el lenguaje, 211–232. La Plata: Universidad Nacional de La Plata.Google Scholar
Arús-Hita, Jorge. 2004. Understanding ‘how we mean’ through discourse analysis: A contrastive example using systemic-functional grammar. In Marta Carretero, Honesto Herrera-Soler, Gitte Kristiansen & Julia Lavid (eds.), Estudios de lingüística aplicada a la comunicación, 29–64. Madrid: Universidad Complutense de Madrid.Google Scholar
. 2010. On Theme in English and Spanish: A comparative study. In Elisabeth Swain (ed.), Thresholds and potentialities of systemic functional linguistics: Multilingual, multimodal and other specialised discourses, 23–48. Trieste: Edizioni Universita di Trieste.Google Scholar
. 2017. Theme in Spanish. In Tom Bartlett & Gerard O’Grady (eds.), The Routledge handbook of systemic functional linguistics, 194–212. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
. 2021. Pushing SFL out of its comfort zone: The role of SPCA structure in English and Spanish. Lingua 2611. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. In press. A contrastive look at Theme as point of departure in English and Spanish academic writing. English Text Construction.
Arús-Hita, Jorge, Julia Lavid & Lara Moratón. 2013. Annotating thematic features in English and Spanish: A contrastive corpus-based study. In Maite Taboada, Susana Doval Suárez & Elisa González Álvarez (eds.), Contrastive discourse analysis: Functional and corpus perspectives, 164–182. London: Equinox.Google Scholar
Briz Gómez, Antonio. 2001. El español coloquial en la conversación. Barcelona: Ariel.Google Scholar
Chela-Flores, Bertha & Godsuno Chela-Flores. 2013. Intonation and sentence focus in English and Spanish: Implications for teaching. The Modern Language Society of Helsinki 104 (3). 328–338.Google Scholar
Davies, Florence. 1997. Marked Theme as a heuristic for analysing text-type, text and genre. In Jordi Piqué & David J. Viera (eds.), Applied linguistics: Theory and practice in ESP, 45–79. Valencia: Universitat de València.Google Scholar
Davies, Mark. 2004–. BYU-BNC. (Based on the British National Corpus from Oxford University Press). [URL]
Downing, Angela. 1991. An alternative approach to theme: A systemic-functional perspective. Word 42 (2). 119–143. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dubois, Betty Lou. 1987. A reformulation of thematic progression typology. Text 7 (2). 89–116.Google Scholar
Eggins, Suzanne. 2004. An introduction to systemic functional linguistics (2nd edition). New York & London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Eggins, Suzanne & Diana Slade. 1997. Analysing casual conversation. London: Cassell.Google Scholar
Fawcett, Robin. 2000. A theory of syntax for systemic functional linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Firbas, Jan. 1966. On defining the theme in functional sentence analysis. Travaux Linguistiques de Prague 11. 267–280.Google Scholar
. 1992. Functional sentence perspective in written and spoken communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Flores Figueroa, Claudia. 2005. Análisis sistémico-funcional de la estructura de conversaciones en inglés y en español. Unpublished MA dissertation, Universidad de Chile.
García, Adolfo M. & José M. Gil. 2011. Una perspectiva sistémico-funcional del español: Acerca de la multifuncionalidad en la cláusula castellana simple. Revista de Investigación Lingüística 141. 191–214.Google Scholar
Gil, José M. & Adolfo M. García. 2010. Transitividad, modo y tema en español: Un primer análisis en términos de la gramática de Cardiff. Revista Signos 43 (72). 71–98. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gómez González, María de los Ángeles & Ana Patricia García Varela. 2014. Discourse-organizational patterns in English and Spanish: Some notes on the thematic management of news reports. Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada 27 (1). 87–117. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Granato, Luisa & Guillermina Piatti. 2010. Some remarks on thematic and information structure in casual conversation. In Proceedings of V coloquio argentino de la IADA, 157–168. La Plata, Argentina.Google Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K. 1985. An introduction to functional grammar. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
1988. On the ineffability of grammatical categories. In James D. Benson, Michael J. Cummings & William S. Greaves (eds.), Linguistics in a systemic perspective, 27–51. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1989. Spoken and written language (2nd edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
1996. On grammar and grammatics. In Ruqaiya Hasan, Carmel Cloran & David Butt (eds.), Functional descriptions: Theory into practice, 1–38. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K. & Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen. 2014. Halliday’s introduction to functional grammar (4th edition). London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K. & Ruqaiya Hasan. 1976. Cohesion in English. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Hasan, Ruqaiya. 1985. Linguistics, language and verbal art. Geelong: Deakin University Press.Google Scholar
Hoffmann, Christian R. 2012. Cohesive profiling: Meaning and interaction in personal weblogs. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Huddleston, Rodney D. 1988. Constituency, multi-functionality and grammaticalization in Halliday’s functional grammar. Journal of Linguistics 241. 137–174. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1991. Further remarks on Halliday’s functional grammar: A reply to Matthiessen and Martin. Occasional Papers in Systemic Linguistics 51. 75–130.Google Scholar
Hudson, Richard. 1986. Systemic grammar. Linguistics 241. 791–815.Google Scholar
Knight, Naomi K. 2010. Laughing our bonds off: Conversational humour in relation to affiliation. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Sydney.
Laboratorio de Lingüística Informática. 1992. CORLEC, Corpus Oral de Referencia del Español Contemporáneo. Departamento de Lingüística, Lenguas Modernas, Lógica y Filosofía de la Ciencia, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.Google Scholar
Lavid, Julia, Jorge Arús-Hita & Juan R. Zamorano. 2010. Systemic functional grammar of Spanish: A contrastive study with English. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Lavid, Julia, Jorge Arús-Hita & Lara Moratón. 2012. Signalling genre through Theme: The case of news reports and commentaries. Discourse 10. Special issue on multidisciplinary approaches to signalling text organisation, 1–45.Google Scholar
Linlong, Yu & Yu Haiyang. 2016. On texture and its theoretical positioning. Proceedings of the 2016 Northeast Asia International Symposium on Linguistics, Literature and Teaching. Las Vegas: New Vision Press, 11–15.Google Scholar
Lucantonio, Damian. 2007. Developing diversity in oral communication. Bulletin of the University of Electro-Communications 20 (1–2). 55–66.Google Scholar
Martin, James R. 1992. English text: System and structure. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1993. Genre and literacy – modelling context in educational linguistics. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 131. 141–172. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1995. More than what the clause is about: English Theme. In Mohsen Ghadessy (ed.), Thematic development in English texts, 223–258. London: Pinter.Google Scholar
2010. Semantic variation – modelling realisation, instantiation and individuation in social semiotics. In Monika Bednarek & James R. Martin (eds.), New discourse on language: Functional perspectives on multimodality, identity and affiliation, 1–34. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Martin, James R. & Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen. 1992. A brief note on Huddleston’s reply to Matthiessen and Martin’s response to Huddleston’s review of Halliday’s Introduction to functional grammar . Occasional Papers in Systemic Linguistics 61. 185–195.Google Scholar
Matthiessen, Christian M. I. M. 1995. Lexicogrammatical cartography: English systems. Tokyo: International Language Sciences Publishers.Google Scholar
2004. Descriptive motifs and generalizations. In Alice Caffarel, James R. Martin & Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen (eds.), Language typology: A functional perspective, 537–673. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Matthiessen, Christian M. I. M. & James R. Martin. 1991. A response to Huddleston’s review of Halliday’s Introduction to functional grammar . Occasional Papers in Systemic Linguistics 51. 5–74.Google Scholar
Matthiessen, Christian M. I. M. & Diana Slade. 2010. Analysing conversation. In Ruth Wodak, Barbara Johnstone & Paul Kerswill (eds.), The Sage handbook of sociolinguistics, 375–395. Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore & Washington DC: SAGE.Google Scholar
Montemayor-Borsinger, Ann. 2009. Tema: Una perspectiva funcional de la organización del discurso. Buenos Aires: Eudeba.Google Scholar
Moyano, Estela. 2016. Theme in English and Spanish: Different means of realisation for the same textual function. In Ben Clarke & Jorge Arús-Hita (eds.), The dynamicity of communication below, around and above the clause, special issue of English Text Construction 9 (1). 190–219. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2021. La función de Tema en español: Sus medios de realisación desde la perspectiva trinocular de la Lingüística Sistémico-Funcional. Revista Signos 56 (106). 487–517. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mwinlaaru, Isaac N. & Wilfred W. Xuan. 2016. A survey of studies in systemic functional language description and typology. Functional Linguistics 3 (8). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Narbona Jiménez, Antonio. 2015. Sintaxis del español coloquial. Sevilla: Editorial Universidad de Sevilla. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ozaki, Shizuko. 2010. Subjectless sentences in English. Journal of Nagoya Bunri University 101. 35–46.Google Scholar
Piatti, Guillermina. 2020. Oralidad y sintaxis. In Lucas Gagliardi, Dolores Álvarez Garriga & Lucía Zanfardini (eds.), Punto de encuentro: Estudios sobre el lenguaje, 121–153. La Plata: Universidad Nacional de La Plata.Google Scholar
Ping, A. Leong. 2005. Talking themes: The thematic structure of talk. Discourse Studies 7 (6). 701–732. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Quiroz, Beatriz. 2008. Towards a systemic profile of the Spanish mood . Linguistics and the Human Sciences 4 (1). 31–65.Google Scholar
. 2018. Negotiating interpersonal meanings in Spanish: Reasoning about mood. Functions of Language 25 ( 1 ). 130–158. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Simon-Vandenbergen, Anne Marie. 2014. Systemic-functional approaches to discourse. In Klaus P. Schneider & Anne Barron (eds.), Pragmatics of discourse, 125–164. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Slade, Diana. 1996. The texture of casual conversation in English. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Sydney.
Taboada, María T. 2004. Building coherence and cohesion: Task-oriented dialogue in English and Spanish. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Taboada, María T. & Julia Lavid. 2003. Rhetorical and thematic patterns in scheduling dialogues: A generic characterisation. Functions of Language 10 (2). 147–178. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thompson, Geoff. 2014. Introducing functional grammar (3rd edition). London & New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thompson, Geoff & Susan Thompson. 2009. Theme, subject and the unfolding of text. In Gail Forey & Geoff Thompson (eds.), Text type and texture, 45–69. Sheffield: Equinox.Google Scholar
Tucker, Gordon. 2005. Extending the lexicogrammar: Towards a more comprehensive account of extraclausal, partially clausal and non-clausal expressions in spoken discourse. Language Sciences 27 (6). 679–709. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Valenzuela Farías, M. Gabriela. 2013. A comparative analysis of intonation between Spanish and English speakers in tag questions, wh-questions, inverted questions, and repetition questions. Revista Brasileira de Linguística Aplicada 13 (4): 1061–1083. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Val.Es.Co. 1996 [1994]. Corpus de conversación coloquial – Universidad de Valencia/ Universidad de Alicante.Google Scholar
Ventola, Eija. 1979. The structure of casual conversation in English. Journal of Pragmatics 3 (3–4). 267–298. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Weil, Henri. 1844. De l’ordre des mots dans les langues anciennes comparées aux langues modernes. Paris: Didier Érudition.Google Scholar
Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

O’Grady, Gerard
2023. Theme in spoken language: when a tone group is not a clause. Journal of World Languages 0:0 DOI logo
Arús-Hita, Jorge
2022. A contrastive look at Theme as point of departure in English and Spanish academic writing. English Text Construction 15:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 july 2024. 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.