Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
https://scholarbank.nus.edu.sg/handle/10635/130223
Title: | Rethinking Theme and Rheme: Some Indications from a Respondent Study | Authors: | Leong, A.P. | Issue Date: | 2000 | Citation: | Leong, A.P. (2000). Rethinking Theme and Rheme: Some Indications from a Respondent Study. Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 35 : 153-178. ScholarBank@NUS Repository. | Abstract: | The functional roles of theme & rheme in the Hallidayan framework of systemic functional grammar are investigated in an exploratory acceptability study, the findings of which motivate a proposed inference boundary model that complements the systemic functional framework by reformulating theme & rheme. Undergraduate English majors at the National U of Singapore (N = 6 females & 4 males) were given cumulative sentence fragments, produced sentence completions based on each successive fragment set, made acceptability judgments, gave reasons, & corrected the sentences they judged odd by changing the first replaceable constituent. In a second task, Ss created nonsense clauses from 24 initial elements representing different theme types. Results indicate widespread agreement on repairs of odd sentences & show that only process, participant, & circumstantial thematic elements constrain the development of messages. The inference boundary model hypothesizes that the theme activates a boundary of acceptability between possible & impossible rhematic continuations in the interactive context; a procedure flouting this principle provides a useful technique for isolating the thematic portion of a clause. J. Hitchcock. | Source Title: | Studia Anglica Posnaniensia | URI: | http://scholarbank.nus.edu.sg/handle/10635/130223 | ISSN: | 00816272 |
Appears in Collections: | Staff Publications |
Show full item record
Files in This Item:
There are no files associated with this item.
Google ScholarTM
Check
Items in DSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.