F U N C T I O N A L

S E N T E N C E

P E R S P E C T I V E

In studying the structure of a sentence, we are

faced with the problem of dividing a sentence into two

sections, one of them containing the starting point of the

statement, and the other the new information for the sake

of which the sentence has been uttered or written. This has

been termed "functional perspective".

I made the trip out here for curiosity, just to see

where you were intending to go. Here the words I made the

trip out here are the starting point, and the rest of the

sentence (for curiosity …. go) contains the new

information. It cannot be said that every sentence must

necessarily consist of two such sections. Some sentences

(especially one-member sentences) cannot be divided up

in this way.

There have been several terms proposed for this

purpose, such as "psychological subject" and

"psychological predicate", "lexi cal subject" and "lexical

predicate", "semantic subject" and "semantic predicate",

and others. Some of these are distinctly unac ceptable, as

they either suggest a wrong view of the phenomena in

question, or are incompatible with our general principles

for analyzing language phenomena.

Thus, the terms "psychological' subject" and

"psychological predicate", proposed by the German scholar

H. Paul, obviously will not do, as they introduce a notion of

individual psychology, which lies beyond the sphere of

linguistic investigation. The terms "lexical subject" and

"lexical predicate", proposed by Prof. A. Smirnitsky, will not

do either, because they appear to take the whole problem out

of the sphere of syntactic study and to include it into that of

lexicology, which, however, has nothing to do with it.

We would rather avoid all terms built on the

principle of com bining the already existing terms "subject"

and "predicate" with some limiting epithets, and use a pair

of terms which have not yet been used to express any other

kind of notion.

The pair of terms best suited for this purpose would

seem to be "theme" and "rheme", which came into use

particularly in the works of several Czech linguists.

The terms "theme" and "rheme" are both derived

from Greek, and are parallel to each other. The term

"theme" comes from the Greek root the- 'to set', or

'establish', and means 'smth which is set or established'. The

term "rheme" is derived from the root rhe- 'to say', or 'tell',

and means 'smth which is said or told' (about that which

was set or established beforehand).

The means of expressing a thematic or a rhematic

quality of a word or phrase in a sentence to a great extent

depend on the grammatical structure of the given language.

Thus, in a language with a widely developed

morphological system and free word order; word order can

be extensively used to show the difference between theme

and rheme. For instance, word order plays an important part

from this viewpoint in Russian. We may merely point out the

dif ference between such sentences as Старик вошел. and

Вошел старик. In each case the word or the part of the

sentence which comes last corresponds to the rheme, and the

rest of the sentence - to the theme.

It is quite clear that no such variation would be

possible in a corresponding English sentence. For instance,

we could not in the sentence The old man came in. change

the order of words so as to make the words the old man

(the subject of the sentence) correspond to the rheme

instead of to the theme. Such a word order would be

impossible and we cannot make the words old man express

the rheme without introducing further changes into the

structure of the sentence.

In Modern English there are several ways of

showing that a word or phrase corresponds either to the

rheme or to the theme.

A method characteristically analytical is the

construction it is ... that (also it is … who and it is... which)

with the word or phrase representing the rheme enclosed

between the words it is and the word that (who, which).

For it is the emotion that matters. Emotion is in this

way shown to represent the rheme of the sentence.

But it was sister Janet's house that he considered his

home. Sister Janet's house represents the rheme.

In the following sentence the adverbial modifier of

place, here, is thus made the rheme: It was here that Mr

Scogan elected to sit.

In the following example a phrase consisting of no

less than eleven words is made into the rheme by means

of the it is . .. that construction. It was his use of the highly

colloquial or simply the ungrammatical expression that

fascinated her in particular,…

Another means of pointing out the rheme in a sentence is a particle (only, even, etc.) accompanying the word or phrase in question. Indeed a particle of this kind seems an almost infallible sign of the word or phrase being representative of the rheme: Only the children, of whom there were not many, appeared aware and truly to belong to their surroundings, for the over-excited games they played, dashing in and out among the legs of their elders, trying to run up the escalator that moved only down, and the like, were after all special games that could be played no where but in the station by people who remembered that it was in the station they were.

The particle only, belonging to the subject of the sentence, the children, singles it out and shows it to represent the rheme of the sentence.

Another means of indicating the rheme of a

sentence may sometimes be the indefinite article. Owing to

its basic meaning of "indefiniteness" the indefinite article

shows the new element in the sentence, which represents

the rheme. By opposition, the definite article will, in

general, tend to point out that is already known, that is the

theme.

Suddenly the door opened and a little birdlike

elderly woman in a neat grey skirt and coat seemed almost

to hop into the room.

The woman herself is represented as a new element

in the situation, obviously the same must be true of her

clothes, and this meaning is further strengthened by the

second indefinite article, the one before neat grey skirt and

coat.

Now let us replace the first indefinite article by the

definite. The text then will be Suddenly the door, opened

and the little bird like elderly woman in a neat grey skirt and

coat seemed almost to hop into the room. This would mean

that the woman had been familiar in advance, and the news

communicated in the sentence would be that she almost

hopped into the room.

The indefinite article before neat grey skirt and coat

would show that the infor mation about her clothes is new,

i.e. that she had not always been wearing that particular

skirt and coat. This would still be a new bit of information

but it would not be the centre of the sentence, because the

predicate group seemed almost to hop into the room would

still be more prominent than the group in a neat grey skirt

and coat.

Finally, if the second indefinite article is replaced by the definite, too, the text will be: Suddenly the door opened and the little birdlike elderly woman in the neat grey skirt and coat seemed almost to hop into the room. This would imply that both the elderly little woman with her birdlike look and her grey skirt and coat had been familiar before: she must have been wearing that skirt and coat always, or at least often enough for the people in the story and the reader to remember it. In this way the whole group the little birdlike elderly woman in the neat grey skirt and coat would be completely separated from the rheme-part of the sentence.

There are also some means of showing that a

word or phrase represents the theme in a sentence.

Sometimes this may be achieved by using the definite

article.

But there are other means of pointing out the

theme as well. One of them, which includes both

grammatical and lexical elements, is a loose parenthesis

introduced by the prepositional phrase as for (or as to),

while in the main body of the sentence there is a personal

pronoun representing the noun which is the centre of the

parenthetical as-for-phrase:

As for the others, great numbers of them moved

past slowly or rapidly, singly or in groups, carrying bags

and parcels, asking for directions, perusing time tables, …

After the theme of the sentence has been stated in the

prepositional phrase as for the others, the subject of the

sentence, great numbers of them, specifies the theme

(pointing out the quantitative aspect of the others) and the

rest of the sentence represents the rheme, telling in some

detail whatever the others were busy doing at the time.

Sometimes a word or phrase may be placed in the

same posi tion, without as for: The manuscript so

wonderfully found, so won derfully accomplishing the

morning' s prediction, how was it to be accounted for?

Here the first half of the sentence (up to the word

prediction) represents the theme of the sentence, while the

rest of it represents its rheme. The pro noun it replaces the

long phrase representing the theme.

That laughter - how well he knew it. The phrase

that laughter must be said to represent the theme of the

sentence: it announces what the sentence is going to be

about.

To be continued.