Inglese 2

Lesson 1

We must be able to answer these questions.

Lesson 2

Unit 28 chapter 6 – Organising the message. Thematic and information structures of the clause. From 28.1 to 28.5

Word order: theme and rheme

Word order: theme and rheme - We’ll reach Lancaster by noon. start by subject

• By noon we’ll reach Lancaster. start by prepositional phrase
• Lancaster we’ll reach by noon. start by object (less common)

NP= noun phrase VP= verb phrase PP= prepositional phrase

What it changes is the element that we place first. So:

• The theme is what we place first when we start writing/speaking
• Grammatically, it is the first clause constituent
• Communicatively, it is the point of departure of the clause as message
• Different from grammatical subject and discourse topic, but often coinciding in one wording
• When the theme coincides with the discourse topic, we call it the topical theme meaning it is conflated with a participant role subject, object or complement or circumstantial agent, the time phrase for example by noon. What follows everything else in the clause we call it the rheme.

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The rheme is all the other elements:

• We’ll reach Lancaster by noon.
• By noon we’ll reach Lancaster.
• Lancaster we’ll reach by noon.

Neutral or marked word order?

Neutral or marked word order?

• Unmarked topical theme:
  • The first constituent is also the subject in a declarative clause
• Marked topical theme:
  • Often a temporal or spatial adjunct, it is a circumstantial theme, which sets up a time/space frame within the participant chain develops: By noon we’ll reach Lancaster. But here the theme is topical because by noon gives information about time of topic, so there is some kind of topic and it sets up a frame. In this particular example the frame is temporal by when.
  • Even more marked (even less frequent) is a fronted compliment or object, which have a local textual function, such as initiating a change of direction by means of contrast: Lancaster, but not Carlisle, we’ll reach by noon. So fronting Lancaster will reach by noon, you're implying some kind of contrast.
  • Objects, complements and adjuncts can be thematised/fronted: when some other element than the subject is brought to initial position, it is a marked theme, and carries some additional significance in the discourse.

• The duke noun phrase (subject) – gave… verb phrase
• This teapot noun phrase
• To my aunt prepositional phrase

This is the common situations in English and we can start by the agent or goal or beneficiary because they are all topical theme.

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The interrogatives are the theme:

1. Finite operator (the auxiliary) + subject in yes or no interrogative.
2. Wh-element in wh-interrogatives, a circumstantial adjunct.
3. Imperative, the theme is the predicator “have”.
4. Let form with us, let’s in 1^st person imperatives.

1. Non wh-subject in a wh-interrogative
2. Emphatic do + predicator in an imperative
3. Marked subject in an imperative

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1. Probably (modal adverb) is placed at the beginning of the clause it occupies thematic position and yet it has no topical meaning it has no function within the experiential meaning of the clause so it cannot be topical thing because it is neither participant agent/actor, goal, patient nor circumstantial, adjunct time, manner space etc. So probably is the theme but it is not the topical theme. The topical theme is the next element Stella the subject which is also the agent/actor. (interpersonal theme)
2. John is vocative and it has nothing to do with the topic. (interpersonal theme)
3. So (connective) is a connective word and the meaning is textual and not topical. (textual theme)
4. Now (discourse marker) it’s a textual theme and it just keeps the conversation start, who is the topical theme – Oh, actually (textual or interpersonal theme) and I is the topical theme.
5. Well (discourse marker) and it occupies the thematic position so it’s a textual theme, we is the topical theme.

1. The sequence: textual theme + interpersonal theme (adv.) + topical theme (agent).
2. The sequence: textual theme + interpersonal vocative + topical theme (subject).

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• Ladies and gentlemen is the interpersonal theme (vocative or form to address)
• This afternoon is the topical theme and is a circumstance of time, answering the question “when”
• Which is the subject and the topic

1. The protagonist of the film Being There (is the noun phrase, the subject and the theme) is (topical theme) “Chance” (rheme).
2. I (noun phrase, subject and topical theme) was originally attracted (verb phrase, unless originally which is an adverb) to the core disciplines of science studies by a famous conference on knowledge (prepositional phrases).

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3. Would it (topical theme) be unfair (rheme)?
4. The reader (noun phrase and theme) will find (verb phrase) other expressions of gratitude (direct object) in the footnotes (prepositional phrase and place adjunct), (rheme).
5. What a brilliant talk (topical theme unmarked) he gave (verb phrase and rheme)! (exclamative clause).
6. Recently (time adjunct and theme), a much-needed introduction to philosophical history has been published (rheme). Is a declarative clause
7. Where (circumstantial adjunct of place and theme) have all the flowers gone?
8. I (topical theme) shall return (verb) to a version of this argument later (prepositional phrase) (rheme).
9. He (topical theme) wouldn’t have married her (rheme). Unmarked WO / Marked WO: Her He wouldn’t have married.
10. This book (theme) may be seen as a breakthrough (rheme).

Pag. 243 exercises on theme.

Lesson 3

Unit 28.8 to 28.9

1. We is a subject as theme WO: S V O A (Place & Time) - A is adverbial information
2. In London is a circumstance adjunct of place as theme WO: A (Place & Time) S V O
3. Last year is a circumstantial adjunct of time as theme WO: A (Place & Time) S V O

Everything else is rheme.

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As we can see, the theme in each paragraph in a circumstantial adjunct of time, all the events are framed by temporal information. This kind of organisation works when we want to organise our narrative from a chronological point of view. Information about when something happened or took place.

• Look at the paragraph 1 to 3 of unit 28 in Downing book, 28.5 - 28.6 - 28.8 – 28.9 – 28.10
• The identity clauses: when we have the copular verb be and then two noun phrases or adjectival phrases and the function of that linking verb is to link the two phrases and establish an identity, for example: The music was the best. We can also front the complement and say: The best was the music.
• The subject complement and object complement: first thing to do is to assign grammatical roles to the various phrases. So in the number 1 it is the subject, was is the verb and because it is a linking verb, is the copular and the element that follows it complete waste of time is an attribute of this subject. In the number 3: I subject – call verb – it direct object – fantastic attribute that is linked to the object it.

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Lesson 4

Fronted negative adjuncts

Fronted Negative adjuncts:

• Negative adverbs in initial position
• Trigger the inversion of an existing auxiliary (or do-operator) with the subject
• Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. (Winston Churchill)
• Never before has the IRA acknowledged the loss of life in its 30-year paramilitary campaign. (TV commentary)
• Have an emphatic effect, are often found in emphatic statements or directives:
• Never say never.
• Under no circumstances must medicines be left within reach of children.
  • Unmarked word order: medicines must under no circumstances be left within reach of children.
• Semi-negatives such as hardly, scarcely and only + an adverb of time is formal:
• Only then did I realise what he really meant. unmarked WO: I only then realised what he really meant.
• Hardly ever did she go on holiday. unmarked WO: She hardly ever went on holiday.

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Other less common themes

Other less common Themes:

1. Fronted deictics and initial adverbs:
   1. Here you go!
   2. There you are!
   3. Off you go!
   4. Down came the rain and up went the umbrellas!
   5. There goes my last dollar!
   6. Here comes the bus.
   7. Then came the Norman Conquest.

1. Subject + verb
2. Subject + verb + adverb position + adverb temporal
3. Subject + verb + object

1. Is something is also refers to the subject but it’s at the end of the clause. Using of tourism and economical language to draw attention.

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1. Manchester united is absolute because it isn’t grammatically linked but there is a semantic relation. (Detached theme)
2. The aboutness is that teapot, so it isn’t grammatically linked but there is a semantic relation.

Is that top new? theme: is that top

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Function of the dislocations

Function of the dislocations:

1. Sam is a cool dude. Right dislocation or after told = “ripensamento” (Unmarked WO)
2. Ben: absolute theme – his sister: left dislocation because she refers to his sister.

Scandalous behaviour people are calling it Scandalous behaviour: object complement

Lesson 5

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‘They are a nightmare, aren't they, these speed traps? Colin said.’ Now the dislocated element is in the dialogic bit, so again even though this is fiction it's a novel, it's the dialogues that contain the examples of the dislocation. The context is the character is driving ‘Benjamin is driving’ and there's Colin sitting next to him. So the conversation is going on in the same context that the two characters are sharing the same fictive context of the car driving, and yet Colin says they are a nightmare aren't they the speed traps and notice the right dislocation here that might help Benjamin the interlocutor understand what the reference is what they're talking about. So even though they are sharing the same context the same situation, some explicit reference to what they are might help the hero understand what is being talked about.

So let's take these dialogue line again:

‘‘they (subject occupying the unmarked position as subject and also being co-referential pronoun to the dislocated element which is also interrupted by what we call it question tag aren't they but the dislocated element is just separated by the tag but obviously it is cataphorically projected by the subject pronoun they) are a nightmare the speed traps’’ (right dislocation).

The first ‘’nice speech today, by the way.’’ there's no verb, there is no subject either just the complement but maybe what has been elided is it was a ‘’nice speech today by the way’’ but you can do that in spoken dialogue.

Well is a textual theme and a discourse marker, typical of spoken conversations. It isn’t the topical theme because the unmarked subject I is the topical theme.

Brought tears to a lot people’s eyes, that did. It is an example of right dislocation in which the element dislocated is not just the demonstrative pronoun that but also the finite operator (it replaces the speech (the subject) brought). Textual theme. Unmarked WO

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The main topic reference is ‘’He’’ referring to Dickens, but here the subject is prefaced by an element called detached predicate. These kinds of fronted elements are useful in narratives because they allowed to pack a lot of information.

‘’Another artist friend from these early days of Dickens’ career’’: Can it be considered a complement, it is the subject complement, it is also a reversed identifying clause so that's why it is marked. The unmarked would be ‘’the illustrator John Leech’’. So you say ‘’another artist friend from these early days of Dicken’s career’’ wars you're setting up expectations as well in the reader or here are the illustrator John Leech.

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1. The first main clause is the theme of the all sentence, “and” is the coordinate conjunction.
2. The second example is not viable because is doesn’t really make sense. In the first one means that he did that thing first and then started “rode into the sunset”. Here “and” is not just a coordinate conjunction but also a chronological sequence between the two clauses, so we can not really swop them and “the lone rider rode into the sunset” as theme and “and got on his horse” as rheme, because the sequence doesn’t make a sense. First issue he get on his horse and then he can ride. We can not reverse the order of the two.
3. The first main clause is the theme of the all sentence, “and” is the coordinate conjunction. Cause consequence
4. If we swop the two and we start from “he made a fortune”, the meaning changes: Cause consequence

1. The theme is the cause.
2. The theme is the simultaneity, time frame.
3. The theme is the condition.

1. It is a purpose clause to suggest something and create expectation + imperative, like in this example.

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A week ago (marked topical theme, fronted) I awoke.

If I have to stay hidden from my brothers, I must become something… unexpected, a lady! It’s a subordinate conditional clause and the communicative effect is attend to.

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Lesson 6

(29.1 – 29.2 – 29.3)

The given element is defined as what is supposed to be recoverable from the context, from the prospective of the speaker.

The new element represents the new information and what the speaker is asking the hero to attend to and therefore it is the news wealthy part of the message.

So basically speakers divide their messages into chunks that are called information units and these information units are defined in terms of the spoken language. In speech there signalled prosodically by means of the system of the language that we call the intonation system. In written discourse where there's no prosody, readers interpret what they read by mentally assigning information units to t