Where did you put it?
I
|
put
|
it
|
in the cupboard
|
Theme
|
Rheme
|
||
Given
|
New
|
||
Who put this in the cupboard?
I
|
did
|
Theme
|
Rheme
|
New: marked
| |
Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 120):
But although they are related, Given + New and Theme + Rheme are not the same thing. The Theme is what I, the speaker, choose to take as my point of departure. The Given is what you, the listener, already know about or have accessible to you. Theme + Rheme is speaker-oriented, while Given + New is listener-oriented.
But both are, of course, speaker-selected. It is the speaker who assigns both structures, mapping one on to the other to give a composite texture to the discourse and thereby relate it to its environment.
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