This post includes a detailed analysis of Theme and Rheme in Discourse along with different types of themes in discourse.
Let’s have a look at Theme and Rheme in Discourse:
The theme is the starting point of a clause or a sentence; that is, what the clause is ‘about’. The remainder of the clause or sentence is the Rheme.
The theme is ‘the element which serves as the point of departure of the message’ (Halliday 1985: 38).
It also introduces ‘information prominence’ into the clause.
For example, in the sentence in Table 6.2 from A Dictionary of Sociolinguistics (Swann et al. 2004: 123), ‘genre’ is the theme of the clause and the rest of the sentence is its rheme.
Genre is a term in widespread use to indicate an approach to communication that emphasizes social function and purpose.
•The rheme is what the clause has to say about the theme – what it has to say about the genre. The theme in this sentence is a topical theme, in contrast with a structural element such as a conjunction (such as ‘and’ or ‘but’), which is a textual theme.
Another Example:
In the given sentence, Amina is the theme and the remaining sentence is rheme.
Amina watched a movie.
(Amina: Theme)
(Watched a movie: Rheme)
Types of Themes
There are three types of themes in Discourse.
- Topical Themes
- Textual Themes
- Interpersonal Themes
1. Topical Theme
The topical Theme is the theme of a clause that ends with the first constituent which is either participants, circumstances, or processes (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014:105).
In the examples mentioned above:
“Amina” and “Genre” are examples of topical themes.
2. Textual Theme
Conjunctions such as and or but when they occur at the beginning of a clause are an example of the textual theme. Textual Themes are those that are used to link, argue, and relate to context.
Examples:
Because it was raining, I could not go out.
And all the students started shouting.
In the above examples, “but” and “and” serve the instances of textual themes.
Interpersonal Theme
Interpersonal theme refers to an item that comes before the rheme which indicates the relationship between participants in the text, or the position or point of view that is being taken in the clause.
The example in Table 6.4 from a student essay (North 2005) shows an example of a textual theme, an interpersonal theme, and a topical theme.
Here the interpersonal theme expresses uncertainty about the proposition that follows:
However … it seems unlikely that Descartes would deliberately challenge the church
In the above example:
“However” is the Textual Theme
“it seems unlikely that” is the Interpersonal Theme
“Descartes” is the Topical Theme
An interpersonal theme can express probability (e.g. perhaps), usuality (e.g. sometimes), typicality (e.g. generally), or obviousness (e.g. surely). It can also express an opinion (e.g. to my mind), admission (e.g. frankly), persuasion (e.g. believe me), entreaty (e.g. kindly), presumption (e.g. no doubt), desirability (e.g. hopefully) or prediction (e.g. as expected) (Halliday and Matthiessen 2004 ).
