Thematic and information structures

1
Thematic and information structures

• Understanding how information is organised and
  presented in texts

2
Functional Sentence Perspective

• The English have no respect for their language

3
communicative dynamism in Italian/English
translation

• Jack ha pagato il conto, e siccome era molto
  caro, ha contribuito anche Mary.
• Jack paid the bill and since it was very
  expensive, Mary chipped in too.
• Taylor, p.16

4
Halliday and Functional Grammar

• All animals are equal but some animals are more
  equal than others.
• Taylor (p.17)

5
marked thematic organisation

• The less expected a choice, the more marked it
  is, and the more meaning it carries
• Baker, Mona, In Other Words, Routledge.

6
Identifying unmarked and marked in translation

• Si avvia al termine la pausa estiva che, come
  ogni anno, ha determinato la sospensione
  dellattività parlamentare.
• The summer break which, as every year, has
  brought about an adjournment of parliamentary
  activity, is drawing to a close.
• Taylor, p.18

7
Hallidayan types of marked theme

• Fronted theme moving into theme position an
  element that doesnt usually occur there. e.g.
• Fronting object or complement e.g. trouble was
  what they got foregrounds expressive meaning of
  utterance
• Fronting predicator publicize it they did
  the most marked of all thematic choices in
  English.

8
Hallidayan types of marked theme

• Predicated themes
• Involves using an it structure (cleft
  structure).
• It that/ it to the only instance in which
  the theme of the clause is not the element that
  occurs in initial position. Predicating an
  element foregrounds it by placing it in theme
  position, thus indicating a marked choice.

9
Hallidayan types of marked theme

• Identifying themes
• These are very similar to predicated themes.
  Instead of using cleft structure (it) it places
  an element into theme position through
  nominalisation using a wh structure
  (pseudo- cleft structure) what the book
  received in China was a great deal of publicity.
  
• They both suggest that the selected item is
  particularly worthy of the readers attention.
• Difference
• in predicated themes the element is presented as
  new information
• in identifying themes it is presented as known
  information.

10
Hallidayan types of marked theme

• Pre-posed theme and post-posed
• The fitter, he sent these documents to the
  office.
• He sent these documents to the office, the
  fitter.
• Much more likely to be used in informal
  discourse, in conversation or oral narratives-
  anecdotes, jokes.

11
Strategy for translating thematic structure

• The most common strategy seems to be to abandon
  the thematic organisation of the ST in favour of
  adhering to whatever word-order principles
  operate in the TL. Most translators prefer to
  give priority to the semantic principles
  operating in the TL rather than the communicative
  structure of the ST. The TT must have thematic
  organisation of its own, preserving where
  possible any special emphasis in the original and
  maintaining a coherent point of view as a text in
  its own right.
• Mona Baker, In Other Words, Routledge.