Transcript Language means of expressing theme and rheme. Focality and

Language means of expressing
theme and rheme. Focality
and topicality.
Презентация подготовлена Лидией Караваевой, студенткой фта иностр. яз РГПУ им. А.И.Герцена, группа 2па, 2009г.

The theme
expresses the
starting point of
the
communication

The rheme
expresses the
basic
informative part
of the
communication

The theme of the
actual division of
the sentence
may or may not
coincide with the
subject of the
sentence.

The rheme of the
actual division, in
its turn, may or
may not coincide
with the predicate
of the sentence —
either with the
whole predicate
group or its part,
such as the
predicative, the
object, the
adverbial.
Ex. 1. The theme is expressed by the
subject, while the rheme is expressed by
the predicate:

Stewie didn’t like his breakfast

Again Homer is being happy!
Ex. 2. The theme is expressed by the
predicate or its part, while the rheme
is rendered by the subject:

Through the open window came the
sound of an approaching police car.

Who is coming late but the Rabbit!
Formal means of expressing the distinction
between the theme and the rheme:






word-order patterns
intonation contours
constructions with introducers
syntactic patterns of contrastive
complexes
constructions with articles and other
determiners
constructions with intensifying particles
Focality and topicality.

“topicality”
characterizing
“the things we
talk about”

“focality”
characterizing
the most
important or
salient parts of
what we say
about the topical
things
Special distinctive treatment is
given to some topical or focal
element, we assign it the
pragmatic function of Topic
(topicality) or Focus (focality)
• Different types of focus according to
SCOPE (= what part of the underlying
clause structure is in focus):
 I did not buy a bike, I bought a car
(argument)
 I did not paint the house, I sold it
(predicate)
 Peter did not solve the problem (πoperator)
• Different types of focus according to
COMMUNICATIVE POINT (= what
pragmatic reasons underlie the
assignment of Focus to the relevant part
of the underlying clause structure):
 Q-word- and yes/no-question-answer pairs
(completive / new)
Contrastive focus:
 John and Bill came to see me. John was
nice, but Bill was boring (parallel)
counter-presuppositional
types of focus:
Replacing:


John bought coffee. –
No, he bought rice.
John grows potatoes. –
No, he doesn’t grow
them, he sells them.
Expanding:
 John bought
coffee, but he
also bought rice.
 He is not only
going to buy
bananas, he’s
also going to sell
them.
Restricting:
 John bought coffee and rice. – No,
he only bought coffee.
 It seems John grows and sells
potatoes. – No, he only sells them.
Selecting:
 Would you like coffee or tea? –
Coffee, please.
Thank you!
Herzen University 2009
Karavayeva Lidia