The System of Theme in Clauses Related by Subordination

Abstract

Systemic Functional grammar aims to describe the set of meaningful choices a speaker makes when putting a thought into words. Each of these choices is seen as a resource for shaping the meaning in a particular way, and the selection will have distinct grammatical outcomes as well as a semantic implication. The choices are presented hierarchically, so that early selections restrict other choices. For instance, if a speaker chooses the imperative mood for a clause, the subject is suppressed, when the interrogative mood is selected, the order of the subject and the first auxiliary is reversed.Systemic Functional Grammar describes three metafunctions, following Halliday’s argument that a clause is a realization of meaning potential derived from the ideational interpersonal and textual functions (Halliday, 1976: 24). Interpersonal function labels are assigned to clause constituents in determining the clause’s communicative status. The textual structure of the clause includes the functions Theme and Rheme, following Halliday’s (1970) theory of information structure. Finally, the ideational function of a constituent is its semantic role, described in terms of a small set of labels that are only minimally sensitive to the semantics of the predicate.This paper deals with the system of theme in English and Arabic subordinated clauses. The theoretical framework adopted is the Systemic Functional model, Halliday’s Functional Grammar (1994) in particular. To the best of our knowledge, no attempt has been made to disclose the elements of theme in Arabic subordinated clauses.The paper aims to highlight the points of similarity and difference between English and Arabic subordinated clauses as far as the system of theme is concerned.