Exercise 7 – Adapted from Hyland K. (2007). Disciplinary Discourses: Social
Interactions in Academic Writing. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, p. 1.
Task: Using the table below, analyse each finite clause identifying theme and rheme,
and distinguishing the different types of theme.
This book is a study of social interactions in published academic writing, looking at why
members of specific disciplines use language in the ways they do. It focuses on texts as the
outcome of interactions and explores the view that what academics do with words is to
engage in a web of professional and social associations. Therefore, the book is essentially
about relationships between people, and between people and ideas. I seek to show that in
research articles, abstracts, book reviews, textbooks, and scientific letters, the ways writers
present their topics, signal their allegiances, and stake their claims represent careful
negotiations with, and considerations of, their colleagues. Their writing therefore displays a
professional competence in discipline-approved practices. It is these practices, and not
abstract and disengaged beliefs and theories, that principally define what disciplines are.
N.B. Highlighted in yellow you’ll find the finite verb of the clause being analysed. The verb in bold
type is the finite verb of the subordinate clause to be analysed in the subsequent row. Clause
subjects are underlined. As you may notice, subjects may be part of the theme or the rheme
depending on the structure of the clause.
Theme
Rheme
This book
is a study of social
interactions in published
academic writing,
looking at [[why
members of specific
disciplines use language
in the ways they do]].
members of specific
disciplines use language
[[in the ways they do]]
they do]]
focuses on texts as the
outcome of interactions
explores the view [[that x
what academics do with
words is to engage in a
web of professional and
social associations]]
is to engage in a web of
x
professional and social
associations]]
academics do with
words]]
is essentially about
x
relationships between
people, and between
[[why
[[in the ways
It
and
that [[what
academics do
with words]]
[[what
Therefore, the
book
Textual
theme
Interpersonal
theme
Topical
theme
x
Theme
selection
Unmarked
x
unmarked
x
x
unmarked
unmarked
unmarked
(elliptical
topical
theme)
x
marked
(pseudocleft)
unmarked
x
unmarked
people and ideas
I
seek to show [[that in
research articles,
abstracts, book reviews,
textbooks, and scientific
letters, the ways writers
present their topics,
signal their allegiances,
and stake their claims
represent careful
negotiations with, and
considerations of, their
colleagues]].
[[that in
[[the ways writers
research
present their topics,
articles,
signal their allegiances,
abstracts,
and stake their claims]]
book reviews, represent careful
textbooks, and negotiations with, and
scientific
considerations of, their
letters
colleagues]]
[[the way
writers present their
topics
signal their allegiances
and
stake their claims]]
It is these
practices, and
not abstract
and
disengaged
beliefs and
theories,
that principally define
[[what disciplines are]].
[[what
disciplines are]]
x
x
unmarked
marked
(fronting of
place
adjunct)
x
unmarked
unmarked
(elliptical
topical
theme)
unmarked
(elliptical
topical
theme)
marked
(cleftsentence)
x
x
unmarked