Theme/Rheme

dalmatia at eburg.com dalmatia at eburg.com
Tue Jul 7 13:34:44 EDT 1998


pwiles wrote:

> In Halliday's functional grammar clauses can be divided into Theme and
> Rheme. Theme being the point of departure of the clause considered as
> message, and Rheme where the presentation moves after the point of
> departure. Progression of Themes then structure the discourse as
> message. In English Theme is realised by initial position in the clause
> (up to and including the first constituent that is either participant,
> circumstance or process), and Rheme follows. 

Perry ~

Could you provide a simple little example of what this idea might
mean?

"John went to bed", in English, for instance, vs Greek word order
possibilities and their implications?

> This would obviously have import for nuancing the import of word order
> in Greek clauses.

So it would seem...  

George

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