Research in Systemic Functional Linguistics

Workshop
Language Academy THE TEXTUAL FUNCTION
UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA
The TEXTUAL Function is intrinsic to language.

“It is the function of creating text, or relating itself to

the context – to the situation and to the preceding
text” (Halliday, 1978: 48)

Theme is the main element of the clause within the

TEXTUAL MEANING
Lise Fontaine, Cardiff University
Textual metafunction. It is defined as “ the point of
departure of the message … that which locates
and orients the clause within its context ”
(Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004:64)

Key elements for Textual meaning and the Theme

system
TEXTUAL MEANINGS
material
Halliday summarizes the three functions as process relational
follows: mental
Transitivity
Experiential
 Experiential meaning is the observer function circumstance
interrogative
indicative
 Interpersonal meaning is the intruder function clause declarative
MOOD
Interpersonal
 Textual meaning is the relevance function imperative
marked
Theme
Textual
unmarked

THEME AS STARTING POINT OF THE

MAIN FUNCTIONS OF THEME CLAUSE
(see Thompson, 2004 p. 165) The Theme of a clause is the first experiential
item (part of the representation of reality). It
 Progressing seems natural that Theme, as the starting
 how Themes progress or maintain the text point of the clause, the connection to the
previous text, is most closely connected with
 Framing the element up for negotiation in the clause:
 a starting point for interpreting the rest of the the Subject. For this reason, when Theme and
clause Subject are conflated, we say that this is an
 Grouping unmarked Theme:
 organising the text into groups, sections, topics
His nickname at Police HQ was ‘Foxy’.
 Beginning
S F/P C
 identifies what the Speaker thinks is a Theme Rheme
good/important starting point

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MOOD AND THEME (I) MOOD AND THEME (II)
However, there is some interaction with Mood, For wh-interrogatives, the unmarked Theme is
so that in yes-no questions, the unmarked the Wh-word, as this both includes the
Theme includes both the Finite (to signal that Circumstantial Adjunct or Complement and
it is the element to be verified) and the Subject. signals that it is the item to be verified:
For the purposes of analysis we will consider
the Subject as experiential Theme and the Why are you called ‘Foxy’?
Finite as an interpersonal Theme: A/Wh F S P C
Theme Rheme

What is he doing?
Was his nickname at Police HQ ‘Foxy’? C/Wh F S P
F/P S C Theme Rheme

Int. Theme Exp. Theme Rheme

MOOD AND THEME (III) MOOD AND THEME (IV)

In imperatives, the unmarked Theme is the
Predicator: For “let’s” imperatives “let’s” is the unmarked Theme and
for negative imperatives it is both “don’t” (interpersonal)
and the Predicator (experiential):

Call me ‘Foxy’.
P C C
Let’s go home
Theme Rheme
S P C
Theme Rheme

Don’t mention the car!

F P C
Int. Theme Exp. Theme Rheme

MARKED THEME MULTIPLE THEMES

All clauses have an experiential Theme – the
Any other Theme is considered marked. The first element with experiential meaning in the
easiest way to think of all this is to consider clause. It is also possible to have purely
any experiential element before the Mood interpersonal or textual Themes. In this case,
element as marked Theme. everything up to the experiential Theme is
Circumstantial Adjuncts are often used as marked included in the Theme of the clause:
Themes:
Well, Honey, you can call me ‘Foxy’.
A A Subject Finite P C C
Participant Process Participant Participant
On weekends call me ‘Foxy’. Textual Interpersonal Exp.
A P C C Theme Theme Theme
Theme Rheme
Theme (marked) Rheme

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TYPES OF THEME EXISTENTIAL THEME
Just as the clause has three types of meaning, the the Subject of Existential clauses may also express
Theme of the clause can be expressed by three types of Theme when it is the first core functional
Theme: element of the clause
There is no place like home
 Textual Theme S F/P C
 Conjunctives: next, then, but, and, …
 Continuatives: well, so, … Theme Rheme
 Interpersonal Theme (Finite, Wh-element, Modal Adjunct,
vocatives) In the kitchen there is a surprise
 Experiential Theme (Participant, Process, or Circumstance) A S F/P C
Marked Theme Rheme

THEMATISED COMMENT PREPOSED THEME

Sometimes we wish to thematise our evaluation
of a proposition:

It’s strange that you should say that. As for the he wiped his eyes so often with
Theme Rheme Lion, the tip of his tail that it became
quite wet
Theme Rheme

THEME AND THE TEXTUAL

IDENTIFYING THEME
 For most clauses, the Experiential Theme will
correspond to the first experiential element of the
clause. This is most likely to be the first participant
in declarative and interrogative clauses or the
process in imperative clauses.
 Often Subject Theme
 For all clause types, when a circumstance occurs
first in a clause, it expresses the Experiential
Theme and is considered to be a marked Theme.
 Check for any other thematic elements (i.e. Textual
and/or Interpersonal Themes) which precede the
Experiential Theme
METAFUNCTION
The textual metafunction includes those
resources that allow speakers to shape their talk
in such a way that their interlocutors can follow
what they are saying, creating continuity and
cohesion on the one hand (Theme structure,
reference) and signalling what information is to
be taken as new or contrastive (information
structure).

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 THEME AND THE TEXTUAL
METAFUNCTION
Therefore the functioning of the textual
metafunction is only apparent over connected
stretches of text, where it works to move
participants or fields in and out of focus and to
signal changes of scene.
N.B. Theme is not the same as the topic of a
stretch of text, rather Thematic structure is a
device for creating, maintaining and shifting
topicality.
THEMATIC PROGRESSION – DANEŠ
(1974)
 The basic idea is trying to account for the source
of each Theme
 This should lead to a better understanding of the
text through understanding the interaction of
themes and rhemes.
 Daneš identified three main patterns of thematic
progression
 Contant Theme Progression
 Linear Thematic Progression
 Derived Thematic Progression
LINEAR THEMATIC PROGRESSION
 the Theme of one clause is derived from the
Rheme of the previous clause
ie Theme 2 is derived from Rheme 1
We have to support the troops.
They are the best and the brightest of
this country
T1 R1
T2 = R1
THREE QUESTIONS TO ASK WHEN
ANALYSING THEME:
 Theme type: marked or unmarked?
 Thematic content: what referents or semantic
fields appear in Theme position?
 Thematic progression: how does Theme progress
over a paragraph/stretch of text?
CONSTANT THEME PROGRESSION
 the Theme of one clause is derived from the
Theme of the previous clause
ie Theme 2 is derived from Theme 1
Ming is a man of integrity, honour and decency.
He led the opposition to the Iraq war
T1 R1
T2 R2
DERIVED THEMATIC PROGRESSION
the Theme of one clause derives from a Hypertheme
which is not explicitly found in the immediate context of
the Theme in question.
ie Theme 2 is derived from a HyperTheme
This can be thought of as a “theme” that can be said to be
hovering about the text.
HT
T1 R1
R2
T2 R2
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DERIVED THEMATIC PROGRESSION
HT
T1 R1
T2 R2
Example (a text about bats):
The bat’s eyes are best adapted to seeing in the dark,
and see in only black-and-white.
Their greatly enlarged ears, necessary for night flying,
are kept meticulously clean with their
sharp thumbs.
Source: http://www.desertusa.com/jan97/du_bats.html
THEMES
Home backgrounds may play important role in
experimentation of tobacoo and alcohol.
Parents habits can have some influence on
children’s experimentation behaviour.
Home atmosphere with more stress factors
associates with adolescent’s early beginning to
smoke and drink.
Social bonding theory suggests that smoking
behaviour is connected with adolescent’s weaker
bounds to family.
Kroh et al. noticed that youngsters who have more
stronger bounds to their friends tend to smoke
more.
example from Mauranen, 1996
ONE STUDY OF ACADEMIC WRITING IN A
FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Mauranen (1996) looked at three sets of academic
texts:
 English authors writing in English
 Finnish authors writing in Finnish
 Finnish authors writing in English
 writers do not have difficulty writing in L1
 often can produce “grammatical” sentences but
the text seems to lack coherence
 text creation is culturally defined
 adjacent sentences will be mutually relevant,
otherwise a shift will be signalled.
LOOK AT THEME PATTERNS IN THIS
TEXT
Home backgrounds may play important role
in experimentation of tobacoo and alcohol.
Parents habits can have some influence on
children’s experimentation behaviour. Home
atmosphere with more stress factors
associates with adolescent’s early beginning
to smoke and drink. Social bonding theory
suggests that smoking behaviour is connected
with adolescent’s weaker bounds to family.
Kroh et al. noticed that youngsters who have
more stronger bounds to their friends tend to
smoke more.
example from Mauranen, 1996
RHEMES??
Home backgrounds may play important role in
experimentation of tobacoo and alcohol.
Parents habits can have some influence on children’s
experimentation behaviour.
Home atmosphere with more stress factors associates
with adolescent’s early beginning to smoke and drink.
Social bonding theory suggests that smoking behaviour is
connected with adolescent’s weaker bounds to family.
Kroh et al. noticed that youngsters who have more
stronger bounds to their friends tend to smoke more.
example from Mauranen, 1996
THEMATIC PROGRESSIONS
(MAURANEN, 1996:217)
 High Probability Options
 T1→T2 (Constant Theme Progression)
 R1 →T2 (Linear Theme Progression)
 Low Probability Options
 T1→R2 (Theme to Rheme Progression)
 R1 →R2 (Rheme to Rheme Progression)
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 TYPE OF DEVIATION FROM EXPECTED
DEVIATIONS FROM EXPECTED PATTERNS PATTERNS

unexpected unexpected other

number of Theme Rheme
deviations
English L1 10 3 -
English L1 authors 13
authors
Finnish L1 authors 12 Finnish L1 1 11 -
authors
English L2 authors 54
English L2 37 12 4
authors

LEVELS OF LANGUAGE QUESTIONS? COMMENTS?

 Extra processing load in L2 may cause problems
in text management

 L2 teachers need to be aware of discourse/text

levels of organisation

 SFL provides a good framework for analysing

these problems
 its focus is on language in use
 The notion of choice is central

REFERENCES
 Mauranen, Anna (1996) “Discourse Competence –
Evidence from Thematic Development in native
and Non-native Texts”. In Ventola, Eija and
Anna Mauranen (eds) Academic Writing.
Intercultural and Textual Issues. Amsterdam:
John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp 195-
230.