THEME: THE POINT OF DEPARTURE OF THE MESSAGE
INTRODUCTION
To start, consider the following versions of the same piece of information about a coach tour:
1 We’ll reach Lancaster, but not Carlisle, by noon
2 By noon we’ll reach Lancaster but not Carlisle.
3 Lancaster, but not Carlisle, we’ll reach by noon.
All three utterances have the same experiential meaning: the content is the same. All three would normally be used to make a statement, and so they are interpersonally equivalent too. The difference between 1, 2 and 3 lies in the textual component of meaning: the information is the same, but the message is arranged or ‘packaged’ in different ways, and the different forms highlight different aspects of the message. More specifically, the element which occupies first position in the clause is different in the three examples: in 1 it is we, in 2 it is before noon and in 3 it is Lancaster. This element is the Theme of the clause. Since first position is salient, what to put in it is an important choice, particularly in connected discourse.
