تسجيل الدخول

تسجيل

THEME AND RHEME

المؤلف:  Angela Downing

المصدر:  ENGLISH GRAMMAR A UNIVERSITY COURSE

الجزء والصفحة:  P206-C6

2026-05-29

46

THEME AND RHEME

Theme and Rheme are the two components which together make up the organizational construct that is the thematic structure of the clause. The Theme comes first and is identified as the first constituent in the clause. What follows is the Rheme.

Looking at the clause as a unit of communication, we can say that Theme is the clause constituent which, whatever its syntactic function, is selected to be the point of departure of the clause as message. What goes in initial position is important for both speaker and hearer. It represents the angle from which the message is projected and sets up a frame which holds at least to the end of the clause. For the speaker, the communicative choice associated with Theme is ‘What notion shall I take as my starting-point in this clause? Shall I start by saying where we are going? Or shall I start with the ‘time-frame’ – by noon? Or with the places we’ll visit?’ From whichever point of departure we choose, the rest of the clause must proceed. For the hearer or reader Theme acts as a signal, creating expectations and laying the foundation for the hearer’s mental representation of how the message will unfold. Given these cognitive and communicative functions, it is not surprising that the element in initial position is so important.

While the Theme lays the basis of the message, the Rheme says something in relation to it. Typically, important new information is presented in the Rheme. Let’s diagram this thematic structure on to our previous examples: