Advances in Corpus-based Contrastive Linguistics - Studies in honour of Stig Johansson

266 Julia Lavid, Jorge Arús and Lara Moratón

Rhematic Field. The Thematic Field includes the clause-initial material from the

beginning of the clause complex up to and including the first nuclear experiential

constituent in the main clause. Within the Thematic Field it is possible to distin-

guish between the Inner Thematic Field (ITF), i.e. the nuclear Thematic Head

and any possible PreHead material preceding it, and the Outer Thematic Field

(OTF), i.e. elements which surround and complete the meaning of the ITF, usu-

ally realized by Interpersonal and Textual Themes. Table 1 illustrates this thematic

structure in an English clause complex.

Table 1. Thematic structure of an English clause complex

THEMATIC FIELD RHEMATIC FIELD

OTF ITF

Pre-Head Head

Indeed, since the civil war’s

end in 2005

The Sudan People’s

Liberation Army

(SPLA) in the South

has frequently had to

confront militias that operate

as government proxies.

Within the Inner Thematic Field our analysis focused on the Thematic Head,

defined as the first nuclear experiential constituent within the main clause which

is more central to the unfolding of the text by allowing the tracking of the dis-

course participants (Lavid et al. 2010). We analysed the following features of the

Thematic Head:

a. The experiential role of the Thematic Heads within the transitivity structure of

the clause (see Halliday & Matthiessen 2004: Chapter 5). We recorded whether the

Thematic Heads functioned as Actor, Goal, Sayer, Recipient, Senser, Phenomenon,

Carrier, Attribute, etc. Examples (1), (2) and (3) below illustrate several cases of

Thematic Head functioning as Carrier, Actor, and Sayer, respectively (Thematic

Heads in boldface).

(1) The negative stigma attached to IMF financing is a thing of the past.

(The New IMF. Comment 8)

(2) A high-powered Russian delegation recently arrived in Juba, the South

Sudanese capital, with the proclaimed aim of “playing a more active role on

the African continent.” (The Bigger Issue in Sudan. Comment 1)

(3) Shakour Shaalan, the fund’s executive director, said 1MF staff, and nota-

bly female staff, “are not at all happy” with Mr Strauss-Kahn, whose amo-

rous adventures in France have earned him the epithet le grand seducteur.

(Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the IMF,

escapes dismissal over affair. Report 1)