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Language means of expressing

theme and rheme. Focalityand topicality.

, -

. . .., 2, 2009.

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The theme

expresses thestarting point ofthecommunication

The rheme

expresses thebasicinformative partof the

communication

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The theme of the

actual division ofthe sentencemay or may notcoincide with thesubject of thesentence.

The rheme of theactual division, in

its turn, may ormay not coincidewith the predicateof the sentence

either with thewhole predicategroup or its part,such as thepredicative, theobject, theadverbial.

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Ex. 1. The themeis expressed by thesubject, while the rhemeis expressed by

the predicate: Stewie didnt likehis breakfast

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Again Homer is being happy!

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Ex. 2. The theme is expressed by thepredicate or its part, while the rheme

is rendered by the subject: Through the open window camethe

soundof an approaching police car.

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Whois coming latebut the Rabbit!

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Formal means of expressing the distinctionbetween the theme and the rheme:

word-order patterns

intonation contours constructions with introducers

syntactic patterns of contrastivecomplexes

constructions with articles and otherdeterminers

constructions with intensifying particles

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Focality and topicality.

topicalitycharacterizingthe things we

talk about

focalitycharacterizingthe most

important orsalient parts ofwhat we say

about the topicalthings

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Special distinctive treatment is

given to some topical or focalelement, we assign it the

pragmatic function of Topic(topicality) or Focus (focality)

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Different types of focus according to

SCOPE (= what part of the underlyingclause structure is in focus):

I did not buy a bike, I bought a car(argument)

I did not paint the house, I sold it(predicate)

Peter did not solve the problem (-operator)

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Different types of focus according toCOMMUNICATIVE POINT (= what

pragmatic reasons underlie theassignment of Focus to the relevant partof the underlying clause structure):

Q-word- and yes/no-question-answer pairs(completive / new)

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Contrastive focus:

John and Bill came to see me. John wasnice, but Bill was boring (parallel)

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counter-presuppositionaltypes of focus:

Replacing:

John bought coffee. No, he bought rice.

John grows potatoes. No, he doesnt growthem, he sells them.

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Expanding:

John boughtcoffee, but healso bought rice.

He is not onlygoing to buybananas, hesalso going to sellthem.

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Restricting:

John bought coffee and rice.No,he only bought coffee.

It seems John grows and sells

potatoes.No, he only sells them.

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Selecting:

Would you like coffee or tea?Coffee, please.

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Thank you!Herzen University 2009

Karavayeva Lidia