UNIT 5.2 Other concepts used in DA

• Information packaging: allosentences
• Principles of communicative dynamism, end-weight, and end-focus
• Theme and rheme
• Co-text and context
• Register (mode, tenor, field)
• Text typologies
  

Theme and rheme

Theme (Halliday and Matthiessen)

In English, the clause has the character of a message, which is enunciated by one part of the clause, the theme.

In Japanese, the postposition -wa indicates that what precedes is the theme.

In English, the theme is indicated by the initial position of an element.

Rheme (Halliday and Matthiessen)

If the theme is the topic of our message, the rheme is the comment or what is being about the theme.

It has been defined in terms of given information (theme) versus new information (rheme):

• That… is the one I like.
• A lot of bread … is what we need.
• This… is what we need.
  

Some Principles of Communicative Dynamism

“Communicative dynamism refers to the variation of communicative value as between different parts of an utterance” (Quirk, 1985). [tells you to place the information that is already known to the hearer at the beginning of the utterance and the information that is new to the hearer at the end].

Principle of end-focus: the message normally starts with old information and progresses towards the new (Halliday 1967) [tells you in the unmarked distribution, that the information that is placed at the ends is new and gets the focus. It will be in the stressed of one of the words placed at the end].

Principle of end-weight: the tendency for long or more complex constituents to be placed in clause final position and light constituents to be places initially: “shortest first, longest last” (Halliday 1967). [an utterance, the new information, is heavier than the old information].

Theme / Rheme

Themes and rhemes will vary depending on what we want to focus on. The same message can have different forms:

• As to the teapot, my aunt was given it by the duke.
• My aunt was given the teapot by the duke.
• The duke gave my aunt the teapot.
• What happened was that the duke gave my aunt the teapot.
  

Information packaging

The arrangement of information within the sentence

• Allosentence
  
  • Different syntactic or thematic options for arranging the same propositional information.
• Fronting
• Nominalization
• Clefting
• Pseudo-clefting
• Active-passive
• Left-dislocation
• Right-dislocation
• Inversion

Carlos and Ana bought some very nice flowers to Peter.	Allosentence*
Some very nice flower, Carlos and Ana bought to Peter in the florist.	Fronting
Buying some very nice flowers to Peter, (is what) Carlos and Ana did.	Nominalization
It was some very nice flowers that Carlos and Ana bought to Peter in the florist.	Clefting
What Carlos and Ana bought to Peter in the florist was come very nice flowers.	Pseudo-clefting
Peter was bought some very nice fresh flowers in the florist (by Carlos and Ana).	Active-Passive
Some very nice fresh flowers in the florist, they were bought to Peter.	Left-dislocation
They bought Peter some very nice fresh flowers in the florist, Carlos and Ana.	Right dislocation
In the florist bought Carlos and Ana some very nice fresh flowers to Peter.	Inversion

*Allosentences: different syntactic or thematic options for arranging the same propositional information.

Thematization

And other such ways of organizing information intrasententially (inversion, passivization, etc.)

Other ways of distinguishing the first (and usually more prominent) piece of information form the rest, and for showing how it is thematized (i.e., textually organized), apart from themselves sequence are to call them given/new information, topic/comment, or even (back)grounds/focus.

Theme	Rheme
Once upon a time, a very long time ago now, about last Friday	winnie-the-Pooh lived in a forest by himself under the name of Sanders.
One day when he was out walking	he came to an open place in the middle of the forest
And in the middle of this place	was a very large oak tree
And from the top of the tree	there came a large buzzing noise
Winnie-the-Pooh	sat down at the foot of the tree
	put his head between his paws
And [he]	Began to think
First of all he	Said to himself
“That buzzing noise	Means something
You	Don’t get a buzzing noise like that just buzzing and buzzing, without its meaning something

Text, context, co-text (Widdowson)

• The interpretation of s text is itself related, of to a context of socio-political beliefs and values.
• Texts implies context right from the starts, so textual interpretation necessarily involves a consideration of contextual factors.
• Consider the following newspaper headline:

Theresa May is wreaking havoc with the British constitution – thankfully her days are numbered.

• How can we interpret the message? In favor or against Theresa May? Why? Which newspaper published it?
  

Co-text

The interpretation of a text is determined by the textual context in which it appears, so the words which occur in discourse are constrained by what we shall cal their co-text (Brown and Yule 1983:46).

When we came within hail, one of the four natives who were present advanced to receive us and began to shout most vehemently, wishing to direct us where to land. When we were on shore the party looked rather alarmed (Brown and Yule 1983:47).

Co-textual connections are semantic in character and are only relevant to the pragmatic process to the extent that they can be contextually realized.

Register Variables

1. Field: what is being written about (e.g., a delivery).
2. Tenor: who is communicating and to whom (e.g., a sales rep to a customer). Degree of formality / Informality (personal tenor).
3. Mode: the form of communication (e.g., written, oral).
   

• The result of the combination of the three categories that comprise the Situational Context.
• They determine the register and the text type.
  

Each of the variables of register is associated with a strand of meaning

• Field is associated with ideational meaning.
• Realized through transitivity patterns (verb types, active/passive structures, participants, etc.)
  
• Tenor is associated with interpersonal meaning.
• Realized through the patterns of modality (modal verbs, and adverbs such as hopefully, should, possibly, and any evaluative lexis such as beautiful, dreadful).
  
• Mode is associated with textual meaning.
• Realized through the thematic and information structures (e.g., the order and structuring in a clause) and cohesion (the way the text hangs together lexically, including the use of pronouns, ellipsis, collocation, repetition, etc.).
  

Summing up variables

Contextual Situation	Text (functional component of semantic system)	Function of language
Field of discourse (what is going on)	Experiential meanings (transitivty, naming, etc.)	Ideational: for representing our experience of the world
Tenor of discourse (who are taking part)	Interpersonal meanings (mood, modality, person, etc.)	Interpersonal: for creating ratifying or negotiating our relationships
Mode of discourse (role assigned to language)	Textual meanings (theme, rheme, information, cohesion, etc.)	Textual: for joining sentences and ideas together in particular ways

Text typologies

Text type	Informative	Expressive	Operative
Language function	Informative (representing objects and facts)	Expressive (expressing sender’s attitude) A poem	Appellative (making an appeal to text received) Advertisement
Language dimension	Logical	Aesthetic	Dialogic (dialogue)
Text focus	Content-focused	Form-focused	Appellative-focused
Prevailing register variable	Field (experiential meaning)	Mode (textual meaning)	Tenor (interpersonal meaning)

Narration, description, exposition, argumentation, instruction

• Narration describe and event.
• Description it describes a place or a time or something (a physical entity).
• Exposition to provide information, to inform about something.
• Argumentation you try to convince someone about something, make somebody do something (e.g., a movie review).
• Instruction tells what to do (e.g., las instrucciones que aparecen en los muebles de Ikea).
  

	Field	Mode	Tenor	1st Classification	2nd Classification
Introducing Pragmatics	Academic: Pragmatics	Spoken and written	Company to the consumers	Informative	Expositive
Piggybook	Fiction: Children’s story	Written	Author, readers	Expressive	Narration
News: Brexit	Report: Current affairs	Written	Writer and readers	Informative	Expositive
Ketchup ad	Advertising	Spoken and written	Company to consumers	Expressive or operative	Argumentation

Types of texts	Communicative Purpose	Genres	Structure
Descriptive	What somebody, something, some place is like	Travel guides some reports parts in (postcards / diaries / novels)	General presentation Detail in (thematic, spatial, temporal…) order
Narrative	What happens	News, comics, history, story, novels, jokes	beggining > Problem Resolution > Ending
Arguments	What is posed as defence, analysis, or refutation of something	Articles, speeches, essays, debates, assessment	Introduction / Development / Conclusion (There are more models)
Instructive or Procedural [or Directive]	How to-	Recipes, instructions, traffic sign, manuals	Schema (step by step, order is of paramount importance)
Expository or Didactic or Explanatory	Why, how, what… They’re easy to understand if they’re well written	Textbooks, reports, encyclopedias, dictionaries	Presentation Development Summary / Conclusion