Misconstruing Marked Topical Theme

Martin (1992: 435):

…in English declaratives, unmarked topical Theme is conflated with Subject, whereas marked topical Theme precedes it.

Blogger Comment:

This is misleading.  In SFL theory, there is only one topical Theme in a clause.  Halliday & Matthiessen (2004: 79):

The guiding principle of thematic structure is this: the Theme contains one, and only one, of these experiential elements. This means that the Theme of a clause ends with the first constituent that is either participant, circumstance or process. We refer to this constituent, in its textual function, as the topical Theme.

A topical Theme of a clause is either unmarked or marked.  In the case of declarative clauses, Halliday & Matthiessen (2004: 73, 74) set out the criteria as follows:

In a declarative clause, the typical pattern is one in which Theme is conflated with Subject; … We shall refer to the mapping of Theme on to Subject as the unmarked Theme of a declarative clause. The Subject is the element that is chosen as Theme unless there is good reason for choosing something else. …

A Theme that is something other than the Subject, in a declarative clause, we shall refer to as a marked Theme. The most usual form of marked Theme is an adverbial group … or prepositional phrase … functioning as Adjunct in the clause. Least likely to be thematic is a Complement, which is a nominal group that is not functioning as Subject — something that could have been a Subject but is not … . Sometimes even the Complement from within a prepositional phrase functions as Theme … .

The problem with Martin's interpretation can be demonstrated by the following:

(i) According to SFL theory:

blessed	are	the meek
Theme: marked	Rheme
Complement	Finite	Subject
Attribute	Process	Carrier

(ii) Following Martin's misinterpretation:

blessed	are	the meek
Theme: marked	Theme: marked	Theme: unmarked
Complement	Finite	Subject
Attribute	Process	Carrier

On Martin's interpretation, the clause as message has three 'points of departure', but no body.