CIRCUMSTANTIAL ADJUNCTS AS THEMES
Among the marked Themes, Circumstantial Adjuncts – particularly those of time and place – are the least unusual. Comparing the examples below, we can say that the circumstantials in London last year have been transferred from their normal position in the Rheme in 1 to initial position in 2; that is, they have been thematized or ‘fronted’.
Theme Rheme
1 We did a lot of sightseeing in London last year.
2 In London last year, we did a lot of sightseeing.
The function of such circumstantials is to set the necessary temporal and/or spatial coordinates of the text world within which the participants move, establishing a time- frame or place-frame for the rest of the message. Such frames or settings can hold over wide spans of discourse, until a different frame is set up. Such is the case with this text by Caroline Law in The Week:
One morning earlier this month, I awoke to the peaceful sound of a babbling brook, which was odd, since I live in inner London. Outside my bedroom window, water was coursing down the gutter. After a couple of days, I realized it was possibly my civic duty to report the leaks to Thames Water, which I duly did.
A week later, the water was still pouring down the street. Surely, I reasoned, with reservoirs empty and threats of hose pipe bans, they wouldn’t knowingly allow thousands of gallons to go to waste. There must have been a misunderstanding. I rang back. There was no mistake: a contractor was on the case.
By 15 February the babbling of the brook was beginning to get on my nerves. I rang again, to be told nothing could be done until the 24th – fully three weeks from the date the leak was first reported. I sent off a furious email – and immediately received an automatic reply, containing this little homily: ‘Water is precious. A running tap can waste up to six litres of water a minute . . . Help save water by putting a plug in the sink when you run the tap. It’s the non-rainy days we all need to save for.’
Initial circumstantials of time constitute a useful device for structuring lengthy stretches of text on a chronological basis. Time and place adjuncts do not initiate cohesive chains, however, although they can be referred to anaphorically in subsequent clauses by the adverbs there and then, respectively: We went to the theatre in London, and it was there that I learned some Cockney slang.
There is competition between subject and adjunct Themes for initial position. If chronological sequencing is adopted as a method of development of the text, as in this extract, temporal Themes are chosen to mark crucial points, while the topic (a babbling brook, water) takes second position, although it is Subject. The topical participant chain of the running water is built up within the time-span created by the Theme. While circumstantial Themes are important in mapping the surface development, it is the topic referents, (participant Themes when initial), however, which structure the cognitive development of the text as a whole, in terms of its global topic.
