Scarica Role of Attraction and Theme in English: Textual Cohesion and Thematic Progression e più Dispense in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity! Textual colligations and Thematic Progression ltems attract each other; these attractions may have different nature. There are 5 types of attraction in a unit of meaning: collocation: lexical level colligation: grammatical level semantic preference: semantic level semantic prosody: pragmatic level textual colligation: textual level SGAWNL The lexical items are primed for the use in textual organization; in other words, every lexical item is expected to be used in a certain way in the organization of the structure of the text. This attraction constrains us to use words just as the other types of attraction identified by Sinclair. When we encounter a word, we unconsciously note the collocations of that word (the words it occurs with), its colligation (grammatical patterns that word is associate with), its semantic associations (meanings it is associate with), its pragmatic associations (the pragmatics it is associated with). We also note its textual collocations (whether it is typically cohesive), its textual semantic associations (whether the word is associated with a particular textual relation), its textual colligations (if it likes to begin sentences or paragraphs), the genre, style or social situation in which it is used. Lexical chain: sequence of related words in a text (used to create cohesion in a text) To be understandable, a text have to be cohesive and all its parts have to be organized in order to have a meaningful unit as a result. Text should also be developed in a linear way so, each sentence should be meaningfully linked both to the sentences it is followed and preceded by. Theme and rheme A text is formed by clauses and each clause has to be interpreted as a message. The structure which gives the clause the character as message is defined by Halliday the thematic structure. The thematic structure is formed by 2 parts: - Theme - Rheme According to Hallyday, the Theme is the element that comes in first position in the clause. It is the starting point for the message and introduce the topic of the clause. For this reason, part of the meaning of the clause depends on the element chosen as Theme. The items that can be selected as Theme are subject, predicator, object, complement and adjunct. Subject: the person, place or thing that does what the verb describes. Predicator: the verbal element of the clause/sentence. Object: objects are typically noun phrases (a noun or a pronoun or any dependent words before or after it). There are direct objects (the person or the thing affected by the action of the verb) and indirect objects (a person or an animal that receives a direct object), the person or thing is joined by a preposition to another word or phrase. Complement: a word or phrase that follows a verb. Adjunct: adverbial word or phrase that add information to a sentence. Marked and unmarked themes In declaratives clauses the theme is usually represented by the subject. Putting a subject in a thematic position means making an unmarked choice (unmarked choices are likely to be made in declarative clauses). The UNMARKED THEME is combined with the subject. The MARKED THEME (in declarative clauses) is not combined with the subject but with the other elements of the clause. The most usual forms of marked theme (in declarative clauses) -> adjuncts The most marked type of theme (in declarative clauses) -> complement The engineers have tacked the problem using a variety of strategies. (unmarked theme=subject) In late September, a secretive experimental vehicle roared into the clear blue skies. (marked theme=adjunct) Precious were his comments. (marked theme=complement) In interrogative clauses, verbs, auxiliaries, \Vh- elements -> (usually) unmarked [Marked themes are not usually used in interrogative clauses] In imperative clauses, the unmarked theme is represented by you, /et's and the verb. In negative imperatives, the typical theme is Don't... (negative form of the auxiliary do). Conjunctions and modal adjuncts (and, or, when, even if, probably, perhaps, usually, broadly speaking) usually occur at the beginning of the clause; it is natural for the speaker to put them in initial position; for this reason, they are not considered part of the thematic structure. There are different degrees of markedness: Fronted Themes, Predicated Themes; Identifying Themes
