Monday 7 March 2016

Failing To Model (Or Notice) The Interplay Of New And Theme

Martin (1992: 452-3):
Taking New as the final clause constituent in [6:36] displays the same difference in the range of realisations noted for the spoken text considered above.  The Theme grounds the genre, anchoring it to just a few meanings and News articulate the field (topical Themes are in small caps in this example to distinguish them more clearly from News; marked Themes are underlined.
[6:36]
(New interpreted as final ranking clause constituents)

a
although the united states participated heavily in world war i,

b
the nature of that participation was fundamentally different from what it became in World War II.

c
the earlier conflict was a one-ocean war for the Navy and a one-theatre war for the Army;

d
the latter was a two-ocean war for the Navy and one of five major theatres for the Army.

e
in both wars a vital responsibility of the Navy was escort-of-convoy and anti-submarine work,

f
but in the 1917-18 conflict it never clashed with the enemy on the surface;

g
whilst between 1941 and 1945 it fought some twenty major and countless minor engagements with the Japanese Navy.

h
american soldiers who engaged in world war i were taken overseas in transports

i
and landed on docks or in protected harbours;

j
in world war ii the art of amphibious warfare had to be revived and developed,

k
since assault troops were forced to fight their way ashore.

l
airpower, in the earlier conflict, was still inchoate and almost negligible;

m
in the latter it was a determining factor.

n
in world war i the battleship still reigned queen of the sea,

o
as she had in changing forms, since the age of Drake.

p
and battle line fought with tactics inherited from the age of sail;

q
but in world war ii the capital naval force was the air-craft carrier taskgroup,

r
for which completely new tactics had to be devised.


Blogger Comments:

[1] 'Taking New as the final clause constituent in [6:36]' seriously misrepresents the distribution of information in the text.  Not only does this fail to take into account the lexical density of the text, but it ignores the fact that the text is contrasting the participation of the U.S. in WW1 with their participation in WW2.  This contrast is effected in the text through contrastive News, in both Theme (marked and unmarked) and Rheme.  An analysis of the text — based on a spoken reading of the text — appears below, with thematic foci highlighted in green, and rhematic foci in blue.

[2] See the previous and next blog post.

[3] This completely overlooks how the structural textual resources, theme and information, collaborate in this 'compare and contrast' text type.  Contrastive New is deployed throughout, not just in Rhemes, but in all seven of the marked Themes and in five of the ten unmarked Themes; and the high proportion of marked Themes reflects the fact that such contrasts are presented as the point of departure for contextualising what follows in the clause.

[4] This is not a marked Theme.  It is a beta clause of a regressive sequence that is thematic in a clause nexus.

[5] There are several errors in Martin's analysis:
  • in [b] the final ranking clause constituent is the Complement fundamentally different from what it became in World War II rather than the rank-shifted in World War II;
  • [c], [d] and [l] contain two clauses rather than one, with mood ellipsis in the second clause in each instance; and
  • in [r] the topical Theme is the Wh-/Adjunct  for which rather than the Subject completely new tactics.


Theme
Rheme
textual
topical
marked
unmarked
a
Although

the United States
participated heavily in World War I
b


the nature of that participation
participation was fundamentally different from what it became in World War II
c


the earlier conflict
was a one-ocean war for the Navy

and


one-theatre war for the Army
d


the latter
was a two-ocean war for the Navy

and


one of five major theatres for the Army
e

in both wars

a vital responsibility of the Navy was escort-of-convoy and anti-submarine work
f
but
in the 1917-18 conflict

it never clashed with the enemy on the surface
g
whilst
between 1941 and 1945

it fought some twenty major and countless minor engagements with the Japanese Navy
h


American soldiers who engaged in World War I
were taken overseas in transports
i
and


landed on docks or in protected harbours
j

in World War II

the art of amphibious warfare had to be revived and developed
k
since

assault troops
were forced to fight their way ashore
l


airpower
in the earlier conflict, was still inchoate

and

almost negligible
m

in the latter

it was a determining factor
n

in World War I

the battleship still reigned queen of the sea
o
as

she
had in changing forms, since the age of Drake
p
and

Battle Line
fought with tactics inherited from the age of sail
q
but
in World War II

the capital naval force was the air-craft carrier taskgroup
r


for which
completely new tactics had to be devised