XXXII. The actual aspect of the sentence

The actual division of the sentence is the division of it into the part, which carries the data, known before, what the sentence is about, the theme of the sentence; and the new information, what is said about the theme, the rheme. Between the theme and the rheme there are intermediary, transitional parts of division of various degrees of informative value (transition).

The theme of the actual division may or may not coincide with the subjects of the sentence. The rheme can coincide with the predicate, or with the whole predicate group. – Her advice can’t be helpful to us.

In the following sentence the correlation between the nominative and the actual division is reverse: the theme is expressed by the predicate (the logical subject), while the rheme is expressed by the subject (the logical predicate): Who is coming late but John! There is a difference of opinion between the parties.

The actual division of the sentence finds its expression only in a concrete context of speech. Isn’t it surprising that Tim is so fond of poetry? – But you are wrong. Mary is fond of poetry, not Tom.

Among the formal means of expressing the distinction between the theme and the rheme there are word order patterns (inversion), intonation, construction with introducers (there, it), articles and intensifying particles.

Owing to its basic meaning of "indefiniteness" the indefinite article will of course tend to signalise the new element in the sentence, that which represents the rheme. By opposition, the definite article will, in general, tend to point out that which is already known, that is, the theme. We will make our point clear by taking an example with the indefinite article, and putting the definite article in its place to see what consequence that change will produce in the functional sentence perspective.

Let us take this sentence: Suddenly the door opened and a little birdlike elderly woman in a neat grey skirt and coat seemed almost to hop into the room. (A. WILSON) The indefinite article before little birdlike elderly woman shows that this phrase is the centre of the sentence: we are told that when the door opened the person who appeared was a little birdlike elderly woman. This meaning is further strengthened by the second indefinite article, the one before neat grey skirt and coat. Since the woman herself is represented as a new element in the situation, obviously the same must be true of her clothes.

Now let us replace the first indefinite article by the definite. The text then will be Suddenly the door opened and the little bird-like elderly woman in a neat grey skirt and coat seemed almost to hop into the room. This would mean that the woman had been familiar in advance, and the news communicated in the sentence would be, that she almost hopped into the room. The indefinite article before neat grey skirt and coat would show that the information about her clothes is new, i. e. that she had not always been wearing that particular skirt and coat. This would still be a new bit of information but it would not be the centre of the sentence, because the predicate group seemed almost to hop into the room would still be more prominent than the group in a neat grey skirt and coat. Finally, if we replace the second indefinite article by the definite, too, we get the text Suddenly the door opened and the little birdlike elderly woman in the neat grey skirt and coat seemed almost to hop into the room. This would imply that both the elderly little woman with her birdlike look and her grey skirt and coat had been familiar before: she must have been wearing that skirt and coat always, or at least often enough for the people in the story and the reader to remember it. In this way the whole group the little birdlike elderly woman in the neat grey skirt and coat would be completely separated from the rheme-part of the sentence.

This experiment, which might of course be repeated with a number of other sentences, should be sufficient to show the relation between the indefinite article and the rheme, that is, functional sentence perspective.

The role of the intonation in the actual division of the sentence is called the logical accent of the sentence. In the printed texts it can be shown by italics. – I can’t bring along someone who isn’t invited. – But I am invited!

The contextual relevance of the actual division is reflected in the regular deletion (ellipsis) of the thematic parts of the utterances in dialogue speech. – How did you receive him? – Coldly. This reduction of the thematic part results from economy of speech.

Glossary of linguistic terms:

1. theme - тема

2. rheme - рема

3. logical accent – логическое ударение

4. italics - курсив

5. deletion, ellipsis – пропуск элемента высказывания, эллипсис

Additional reading:

1. стр. 191 – 197

2. стр. 256-266

3. –

4. стр. 261-271

5. стр. 265-308

Practical tasks:

16. Comment on the actual division of the parts of the sentences:

Over the breakfast she grew serious.

The old lady I was talking to is Mrs Lancaster.

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