Table Of ContentON SUBJECT AND THEME
AMSTERDAM STUDIES IN THE THEORY AND
HISTORY OF LINGUISTIC SCIENCE
General Editor
E.F. KONRAD KOERNER
(University of Ottawa)
Series IV – CURRENT ISSUES IN LINGUISTIC THEORY
Advisory Editorial Board
Henning Andersen (Los Angeles); Raimo Anttila (Los Angeles)
Thomas V. Gamkrelidze (Tbilisi); John E. Joseph (Edinburgh)
Hans-Heinrich Lieb (Berlin); Ernst Pulgram (Ann Arbor, Mich.)
E. Wyn Roberts (Vancouver, B.C.); Danny Steinberg (Tokyo)
Volume 118
Ruqaiya Hasan and Peter H. Fries (eds)
On Subject and Theme
ON SUBJECT
AND THEME
A DISCOURSE
FUNCTIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Edited by
RUQAIYA HASAN
Macquarie University
PETER H. FRIES
Central Michigan University
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8 American National Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
On subject and theme : a discourse functional perspective / edited by Ruqaiya Hasan, Peter H.
Fries.
p. cm. -- (Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science. Series
IV, Current issues in linguistic theory, ISSN 0304-0763 ; v. 118)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents: Approaching the French clause as a move in dialogue / Alice Caffarel -- Mood
and the ecosocial dynamics of semiotic exchange / Paul J. Thibault -- The English “tag
question” / Bill McGregor -- “Nothing” makes sense in Weri / Maurice Boxwell --
Subjectlessness and honorifics in Japanese / Motoko Hori -- A dynamic perspective / L.J.
Ravelli -- Subject and theme in Chinese / Fang Yan, Edward McDonald, Cheng Musheng -- A
systemic-functional approach to the thematic structure of the Old English clause / Michael
Cummings -- Themes, methods of development, and texts / Peter H. Fries -- Defining and
relating text segments / Carmel Cloran.
1. Grammar, Comparative and general--Topic and comment. 2. Discourse analysis. I.
Hasan, Ruqaiya. II. Fries, Peter Howard. III. Series.
P298.05 1995
415--dc20 95-8905
ISBN 90 272 3621 6 (Eur.) / 1-55619-572-9 (US) (Hb; alk. paper) CIP
ISBN 90 272 3657 7 (Eur.) / 1-55619-868-X (US) (Pb; alk. paper)
© Copyright 1995 - John Benjamins B.V.
Reprinted with corrections: 1997
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John Benjamins Publishing Co. • P.O.Box 75577 • 1070 AN Amsterdam • The Netherlands
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Acknowledgments
Manypeoplehavehelpedinbringingthisbookabout,andwewouldliketo
take this opportunity to thank them. First and foremost are, of course, the
contributorstothevolume: withoutthemtherewouldhave beennobook!
This is reason enough for thanking, but we wish to give special thanks to
themforsowillinglyattendingtothemanycallswehavemadeonthem.Our
thanksareduetotheanonymousrefereeswhoweregenerouswiththeirtime
andpermittedustobenefitfromtheirexpertise.NancyFrieshelpedinmany
ways,givingagooddealofpracticalassistanceandgoodcounsel.Weare
indebted to Neil Halliday for his generosity in ‘‘donating’’ not only his
AppleMacintoshbutalsohistime,troubleshootingwhenthemachinesfelt
mismanaged!WethankMichaelHallidayforsoreadilycomingtoourassis-
tance in many ways. Professor Konrad Koerner, the General Editor of the
Series,savedusvaluablehoursbygivinghelpfuladviceduringaverybusy
lecturetourinAustralia;werememberhisvisitwithpleasureandthankhim
forhiskindness.OurespecialthanksareduetoYoladeLusenet,ofBenja-
mins.Ithasbeenarealpleasureworkingwithheronthisvolume:wehave
greatly appreciated her readiness to help, her expert guidance and her un-
failinglypositiveapproach.
BehindthisvolumeliesalsotheworkoftheOrganisingCommitteeof
the19thisfc92,whichwastheoccasionfortheproductionofthepapersin
thisvolume.WethankMacquarieUniversity,theSchoolofEnglishandLin-
guisticsandespeciallythedisciplineofLinguisticsfortheirgeneroussupport
of the Congress, and although it is not possible to name the many good
friends,studentsandcolleagueswhohelpedmaketheCongressasuccess,
theirhelpisgratefullyrememberedandwarmlyappreciated.
RuqaiyaHasan
PeterH.Fries
Contents
ReflectionsonSubjectandTheme:Anintroduction xiii
RuqaiyaHasanandPeterH.Fries
1 ApproachingtheFrenchClauseasaMoveinDialogue:
InterpersonalOrganisation 1
AliceCaffarel
2 MoodandtheEcosocialDynamicsofSemioticExchange 51
PaulJ.Thibault
3 TheEnglish‘TagQuestion’:ANewAnalysis,is(n’t)it? 91
BillMcGregor
4 ‘‘Nothing’’MakesSenseinWeri:ACaseof
ExtensiveEllipsisofNominalsinaPapuanLanguage 123
MauriceBoxwell
5 SubjectlessnessandHonorificsinJapanese:
AcaseofTextualConstrual 151
MotokoHori
6 ADynamicPerspective:ImplicationsforMetafunctional
InteractionandanUnderstandingofTheme 187
L.J.Ravelli
7 OnThemeinChinese:FromClausetoDiscourse 235
FangYan,EdwardMcDonald,ChengMusheng
8 ASystemicFunctionalApproachto
theThematicStructureoftheOldEnglishClause 275
MichaelCummings
9 Themes,MethodsofDevelopment,andTexts 317
PeterH.Fries
10 DefiningandRelatingTextSegments:
SubjectandThemeinDiscourse 361
CarmelCloran
Index 405
About the authors
MauriceboxwellhasbeenamemberoftheSummerInstituteofLinguis-
tics (sil) since 1961, working for much of that time amongst the Weri
people of Papua New Guinea. His main interest lies in the area of Papuan
languagesandhehaspublishedanumberofpapersonthephonologyand
grammar of Weri. His doctoral dissertation (Macquarie University) was
basedonastudyoftheco-referentialrelationsestablishedthroughnominal
elements in Weri. He is currently working in Australia, teaching a cross-
culturalcommunicationscourse,andmaybecontactedat4PleasantCourt,
Carlingford,nsw2118,Australia.
Alicecaffarel’smainresearchinterestsarethegrammarandsemantics
ofspokenandwrittenFrench,registervariation,andcomputationallinguis-
tics.Sheiscurrentlydevelopingasystemicfunctionaldescriptionofsome
aspects of the grammar of French for her doctoral research at Sydney
University, while also working towards the implementation of a register
specificgrammarofFrenchinthecontextofthemultilingualtextgeneration
project(director:ChristianMatthiessen).Foranexampleofregisterspecific
grammatical description see her ‘Interacting between a generalised tense
semanticsandregister-specificsemantictensesystems:Abi-stratalexplora-
tion of the semantics of French tense’, Language Sciences 14.4, 1992.
Contact: TheDepartment of Linguistics, University ofSydney,nsw2006,
Australia.
cheng Musheng is Professor of English and Chair of the Department of
Foreign Languages, Tsinghua University. Her research areas have been
generalandhistoricallinguistics,lexicology,foreignlanguageteachingand
the description of Chinese. She is one of the Chief Editors ofAn English-
Chinese Dictionary of Science and Technology and one of the main
compilersoftheEnglish-ChineseWord-OceanDictionary,bothpublished
by the National Defence Publishers. Professor Cheng can be contacted at
the Department of Foreign Languages, Tsinghua University, Beijing,prc,
100084.
x about the authors
Carmelcloran’sresearchinterestsincludecontextandlanguage,language
andsocialisation,languageandcognitivedevelopment,andlexisasdelicate
grammar. She has played a major investigative role in the sociolinguistic
research project The Role of Language in Establishing Ways of Learning
Phases1-3(director:RuqaiyaHasan),andiscurrentlyengagedinresearch
onReasoninginEverydayTalk(withRuqaiyaHasan)andLexisasDelicate
Grammar (with Colin Yallop and Ruqaiya Hasan). She is the author of
RhetoricalUnitsandDecontextualisation:Anenquiryintosomerelations
of grammar, meaning and context – her doctoral dissertation – published
1994bytheDepartmentofEnglishStudies,BirminghamUniversityinthe
series Monographs in Systemic Linguistics. Contact: School of English,
Linguistics,andMedia,MacquarieUniversity,nsw2109,Australia.
Michael cummings has research interests which include Old English,
modernsynchroniclinguisticsandlogicprogramming.Heistheco-author
of The Language of Literature: A linguistic introduction to the study of
literature (with R Simmons, published by Pergamon Press, 1983) and co-
editorofLinguisticsinaSystemicPerspective(withJBensonandWilliam
Greaves,publishedbyJohnBenjamins1988).HechairstheDepartmentof
English,GlendonCollege,YorkUniversity,2275BayviewAvenue,Toronto,
Ontm4n3m6,Canada.[e-mail:<[email protected]>]
fang YanisProfessorofEnglishatTsinghuaUniversity.Herresearchin-
terests include the description of Chinese grammar in the framework of
systemicfunctionallinguistics,linguisticschools,andlinguisticsandforeign
languageteaching.Herpublicationsinclude‘Atentativestudyofthetheme
andrhemestructureinChinese’, JournalofTsinghuaUniversity:Philoso-
phy&SocialScience,2.1989,‘OnSubjectinChinese–‘Subject’,‘Actor’
and ‘Theme’ in Language System and Function, edited by Hu Zhuanglin
(Peking UniversityPress,1990),and ‘Applicationsof functionalgrammar
totheteachingoftheadvancedreadingcourse’inLanguage,TextandCon-
text,editedbyZhuYongsheng(TsinghuaUniversityPress,1993).Professor
FangmaybecontactedattheDepartmentofForeignLanguages,Tsinghua
University,Beijing,prc.100084.
PeterHfries isProfessorofEnglishandLinguisticsatCentralMichigan
University (Mount Pleasant, Michigan 48859, usa.) and an Honorary
