Re: theme/rheme markers

> From: O'Connell James
>
> Ok, I came up with this system for Elenyo, and I was
> wondering if anyone had a comparable system in their
> own lang. This presumes knowledge of prague school
> theme/rheme
First we need a definition of terms.

While two of the three segments of sentence structure (grammatical and
semantic) are clear enough to me, the third, the communicative (theme/rheme
or theme/transitional zone/rheme) has always been somewhat more elusive for
me.  Nor do I believe there is any agreement about the definition of
theme/rheme in a sentence. I have seen them defined by means of the
information value for the discourse of various parts of a sentence, such
that the theme is what is known or given and the rheme is the unknown or
new. This seems to overlap significantly with Topic and Focus.  Others
define the them according to the contribution of parts of a sentence to the
_development_ of a discourse. If the contribution is minor, then the
relevant part of the sentence is the theme, and if it is major, it is called
the rheme.  How do you define these?

Stay curious,
David

David E. Bell
The Gray Wizard
www.graywizard.net

Wisdom begins in wonder.

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