新闻语篇主位分析

陈钰婷 黄亚

【摘要】文章以联合国纪念印度海啸10周年为文本，结合主位系统，采用定性分析和定量分析相结合的方法，从主位的身份和主位的构成两个不同角度考察主位结构。经研究发现，所选文本中出现的主位以非标记性的名词词组的主位居多，同时，采用了标记性的状语和句子作为主位。另外，也有标记性的谓化主位，强制型的存在主位和含有语篇主位的多重主位。

【关键词】主位 主位的身份 主位的构成 主位系统 语篇分析

【Abstract】The corpus of this paper is UN Marks 10th Anniversary of Indian Ocean Tsunami. Based on the thematic system， the author identifies the theme from two perspectives： theme status and theme composition.The author adopts the method of quantitative statistics and qualitative analysis to analyze the type and functions of theme in the text. It can be found that the unmarked-subject-nominal-group theme occurs most frequently in the text. Besides， the text also chooses marked-adjunct and marked-clause as theme. Meanwhile， there are also unmarked-predicator theme， enhanced-existential theme and multiple-textual-textual adjunct theme.

【Key words】theme； theme status； theme composition； theme system； discourse analysis

1. Introduction

The Indian Ocean tsunami happened on December 26， 2004. The unexpected disaster has caused huge casualties and property losses. UN marked 10th anniversary of Indian Ocean tsunami on December 26， 2014. The UN recalled in the following ten years how the international community took immediate actions responding to the tsunami and helped the Indian countries rebuild their home， what were the substantial changes in the global thinking regarding disaster risk reduction issues， and how the world today has become a safer place against disasters by taking significant measures. Based on the thematic system， the author identifies theme occurring in the text from two perspectives： theme status and theme composition. After detailed analysis， the themes in the text can be categorized into different sorts. Each sort of theme will be discussed in detail.

Theme is the first constituent of the clause. All the rest of the clause is simply labeled the Rheme. The theme is the starting-point for the message； it is the ground from which the clause is taking off.（Halliday 1994： 38）

Theme can be identified from two perspectives： one is theme status and the other is theme composition. On one hand， theme status means that there are marked theme， unmarked theme and enhanced theme. On the other hand， the theme composition， referring to the complexity level of the theme， consists of simple theme and multiple theme.

1.1 Theme Status

In the majority of cases， if the theme of the clause acts as the subject of the clause， that is to say， the theme of the clause and the subject of the clause are the same， then the theme can be called as the ‘unmarked theme. It always occurs in the declarative sentence， and sometimes in the WH-interrogatives. For example：

Example 1： Life （T） // is like a journey. （R）

Example 2： What （T） // has happened to you last night？ （R）

However， if the theme of the clause does not act as the subject of the clause， then the theme can be called ‘marked theme. This kind of theme probably occurs both in the declarative sentence and WH-interrogative sentence. For example：

Example 3： What （T） // do you want to do？ （R）

Example 4： What （T） // is your decision？ （R）

Example 5： How （T） // will you celebrate your birthday？ （R）

In examples3， the marked theme conflate with the object of the clause. In example 4， the marked theme is the predicative. In examples 5， the marked theme is the adjunct of the clause.

Generally speaking， the unmarked theme is chosen to be the starting point of the utterance. Nonetheless， if the addressor intends to emphasize some certain element， he will prefer the marked theme.

As for the enhanced theme， it includes thematic equative， predicated theme， thematized comment， preposed theme and existential theme.

1.2 Theme Composition

If the theme is acted only by the experiential theme， then it is the simple theme. This function can be realized in forms of one nominal group， one adverbial group or one prepositional phrase， or more than one groups， or even one clause.

Table 1 The examples of five forms of simple theme

Simple theme Rheme The form of theme

The music is played by Beethoven. nominal group

Fortunately， all of them pass the exam. adverbial group

Honestly speaking， the food does not taste so elicious. prepositional phrase

The teachers and students will have a party tonight. more than one groups

If it rains tomorrow， the picnic will be canceled. one clause

Multiple theme can be further devided into more than one functional constituents， which means a multiple theme may include textual constituent， interpersonal constituent， and experiential constituent （or topical theme） at the same time， or one or two of the three constituents. There is one and only one experiential constituent （or experiential theme， or topical theme） contained in a multiple theme. In other words， the theme of a clause or sentence always ends with the first experiential constituent that is participant， circumstance， or process. （Halliday， 1994） Besides， in Hallidays illustration， the typical ordering of these three constituents can be put as follows in detail：

[1] textual constituents + experiential constituents

[2] interpersonal constituents + experiential constituents

[3] lexical constituents + interpersonal constituents + experiential constituents

Thompson （2000） illustrates Halliday's viewpoint with several typical instances：

As textual constituents， there are three kinds of elements. The first are continuative elements such as “now， yes， well， no， oh”； structural elements such as “and， so， even， yet， however”； and， conjunctions and conjunctive adjuncts such as“therefore， so far， as a result， as far as that is concerned”. etc.

As interpersonal constituents， they are usually performed by the mood-marking elements， the finite elements and the modal elements， for example “surely， surprisingly， fortunately， frankly speaking， to be honest undoubtedly”， etc. There are also some vocative elements， for example names or other forms of direct addressing. （Thompson， 2000， p.136）

To sum up， both the simple theme and the multiple theme should have one， and only one experiential constituent； in other words， in both cases the theme ends with the first experiential constituent. The difference between them is that the multiple theme has its own internal structure usually in the ordering of textual^interpersonal^experiential constituent， while the simple theme has no elements other than the experiential one.

To take an overall example， here is a sentence Halliday takes in his illustration of different theme constituents in one sentence：

Example 16： Well， Ann， but then the best idea surely wouldn't be to join the group？

Halliday rearranges the elements of this sentence in a different order in the following table to analyze in detail the maximally extended multiple theme.

Table 2 Maximally Extended Themes in One Sentence

2. The Result of the Analysis

In this part， in order to have a thematic analysis of text， the author selects a piece of news text UN marks 10th anniversary of Indian Ocean tsunami from China Daily， and the distribution of different kinds of theme is presented as follows：

Table 3 Frequency of different kinds of theme

3. Discussions： the functions of theme and rheme

As has been mentioned above， different reasons for choosing certain constituents as theme and for choosing certain structures to express theme choices are presented. These reasons are typically those that hold at the individual clause level. However， this does not give a full picture of what is going on. Therefore， it is essential to examine it in terms of how theme choices work together through a text to signal its underlying coherence， and to signal its method of development. Broadly speaking， there are four main， related functions to be identified： the first function is signaling the maintenance or progression of ‘what the text is about at that point， the second one is specifying or changing the framework for the interpretation of the following clause （clauses）-the wording here is taken from Fries （1995）， the third function is signaling the boundaries of sections in the text， and the last one is signaling what the speaker thinks is a viable/useful/important starting point（Thompson， 2008， p165）.

4. Conclusion

From the above analysis， it can be seen that theme can be analyzed from two perspectives： theme status and theme composition. Based on the thematic system， themes in the text UN Marks 10th Anniversary of Indian Ocean Tsunami can be classified into five sorts： unmarked-subject-nominal-group theme， marked-adjunct theme， marked-clause theme， multiple-textual-textual adjunct theme， unmarked-predicator theme and enhanced-existential theme. Of all these themes， unmarked-subject-nominal group themes occur the most. Some of the unmarked-subject-nominal group themes are keeping to the same， others are constituents from the preceding clause. Therefore， the unmarked-subject-nominal group themes can signal the maintenance or progression of ‘what the text is about at that point and also signal what the speaker thinks is significant. Besides， marked-adjunct theme and marked-clause theme specifying the framework for the interpretation of the following clause also occur frequently in the text.

References：

[1]Fries，P.H.Themes，methods of development，and texts.In：Hasan，R.and Fries，P.H.（eds），On Subject and Theme from the Perspective of Functions in Discourse[M].Amsterdam and Philadelphia：John Benjamins，1995.

[2]Halliday，M.A.K.An Introduction to Functional Grammar （second edition）[M].London：Edward Arnold，1994.

[3]Thompson，G.Introducing Functional Grammar[M].London：Arnold.Beijing：Foreign Language Teaching and Researching Press，2000.

[4]Thompson，G.Introducing Functional Grammar（second edition）.London：Arnold[M].Beijing：Foreign Language Teaching and Researching Press，2008.

[5]董欣，英语新闻语篇中的主位推进模式分析[D].山东大学，2013.

[6]许文静.汉英新闻语篇主位推进模式对比研究[D].湖北师范学院，2013.

作者简介：

陈钰婷（1991-），女，湖北黄石人，研究生，外国语言学，语料库语言学，外语教学。

黄亚（1990-），男，湖北恩施人，研究生，翻译学，外宣翻译。