HyperTheme: Writing Pedagogy Misrepresented As Linguistic Theory

Martin & Rose (2007: 194):

As noted at the beginning of this chapter Helena introduces the phase of discourse we’ve just been considering as ‘living hell’, and she does so with a marked Theme

After about three years with the special forces, our hell began.

Her evaluation of their life as our hell functions as a kind of ‘topic sentence' for the events which follow as she spells out what hell is. From a linguistic perspective we can treat this ‘topic sentence’ as a kind of higher level Theme: a hyperTheme. In doing so we’re saying that its relation to the text which follows is like the relation of a clause Theme to the rest of its clause. In both contexts the Theme gives us an orientation to what is to come: our frame of reference as it were. Beyond this, the hyperTheme is predictive; it establishes expectations about how the text will unfold.

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, like the term 'topic sentence' itself, this is writing pedagogy, not linguistic theory, because it is a proposal about how to write, not a proposition about how to model language.

[2] To be clear, the term 'hypertheme' is from Daneš (1974), where it refers to the first appearance of a repeated Theme ('hyper' in the sense of 'above' the second appearance). For clarifying critiques of Martin's use of 'hypertheme', see the series of posts here.

Misrepresenting Halliday On New Information

Martin & Rose (2007: 192):

For Halliday there are two overlapping waves involved: a thematic wave with a crest at the beginning of the clause, and a news wave with a crest at the end (where the main pitch movement would be if the clause were read aloud). In this phase, participant identification links the unmarked Themes together, and patterns of negative appraisal link up choices for New. Recurrent choices for Theme and related choices for New work together to package discourse as phases of information.

Blogger Comments:

This is misleading, because it is untrue. For Halliday, a Theme is a peak of prominence at the beginning of a clause, whereas the focus of New information is a peak of prominence at either the beginning or end of an information unit. An information unit may be co-extensive with a clause, or extend over part of a clause or extend beyond a single clause. In short, the focus of New information can occur anywhere, or nowhere, in a clause.

Misanalysing Information Flow

Martin & Rose (2007: 192-3):

An outline of information flow at this level of analysis is provided in Table 6.1.

 

Blogger Comments:

The table below presents a Theme analysis that is line with SFL Theory, and presents one of several possible interpretations of the distribution of Given and New information in this portion of text. Each focus of New information, realised phonologically by tonic prominence, is highlighted as bold, and the extent of New information, coloured blue, is taken to be the element of clause structure in which focus of New appears.

Theme				Rheme
structural	interpersonal	topical
		marked	unmarked
		After about three years with the special forces		our hell began
			He	became very quiet, withdrawn
	Sometimes		he	would just press his face into his hands
and				shake uncontrollably
			I	realised
			he	was drinking too much
Instead of				resting at night
			he	would wander from window to window
			He	tried to hide his wild consuming fear
but			I	saw it
		In the early hours of the morning between two and half-past-two		I jolt awake from his rushed breathing
				Rolls this way, that side of the bed
			He	's pale, ice cold in a sweltering night — sopping wet with sweat
Eyes bewildered, but dull like the dead
And the shakes: The terrible convulsions and blood-curdling shrieks of fear and pain from the bottom of his soul
	Sometimes		he	sits motionless
	just			staring in front of him

The important foci of New overlooked by Martin & Rose are those in the marked Themes, and those that mark contrasts: resting vs wander and hide (vs saw). Many other readings are possible; for example, either or both instances of the interpersonal Theme sometimes could be realised with tonic prominence, marking them as the foci of New information.

Mistaking Rheme For New Information

Martin & Rose (2007: 192):

At the other end of the clause in writing we typically have what Halliday calls New. This is a different kind of textual prominence having to do with the information we are expanding upon as text unfolds. In the phase of discourse we are concentrating on here, the News have to do with how Helena's husband felt and so the dominant pattern has to do with negative appraisal (depressed mental states and strange behaviour). Note how the choices for New are much more varied than the choices for unmarked Theme.They elaborate with human human interest, whereas choices for unmarked Theme tend to fix our gaze.

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, this confuses Rheme with New. On the one hand, Rheme is the element of clause structure in which the Theme is developed (Halliday & Matthiessen 2014: 89). On the other hand, New is not an element of clause structure, but an element of the structure of an information unit, which can

• be co-extensive with a clause,
• extend over a portion of a clause, or
• extend further than a clause.

Moreover, New information can occur in either the Theme or the Rheme of a clause; that is, New is not restricted to the Rheme. Examples of the conflation of New with Theme in Martin & Rose's data include the marked Themes. Each of these is punctuated graphologically by a comma, which marks the extent of the Theme as an information unit, which obligatorily includes a focus of New information. Given that the marked Themes in Helena's texts are restricted to circumstances of temporal Location which introduce each new time-phase in her autobiography, it is not surprising that each of these marked Themes presents the temporal Location as New information.

[2] It will be seen in the next post that Martin & Rose's analysis of New information (and unmarked Theme) is markedly different from an analysis based on SFL principles — not only because New is ignored when thematic.

"Marked Themes Are Often Used To Signal A Shift In Major Participants"

 Martin & Rose (2007: 191-2):

Themes that are not Subject have a different effect; they are more prominent because they are atypical, so we refer to them as 'marked' Themes. Marked Themes can include circumstantial elements, such as places or times, or they may be participants that are not the Subject of the clause. Marked Themes are often used to signal new phases in a discourse: a new setting in time, or a shift in major participants; that is they function to scaffold discontinuity.

In Helena's story, marked Themes play an important role in moving us from one phase of the story to the next. The story's key marked Themes are outlined below. We can see the role they play in moving us from Incident to Incident and from Incidents to Interpretation; and the role they play with Incidents to frame the meeting, operations and repercussion phases. These are underlined below:

Incident 1

As an eighteen-year-old, I met a young man in his twenties
Then one day he said he was going on a 'trip'
More than a year ago, I met my first love again through a good friend

Incident 2

After my unsuccessful marriage, I met another policeman
[Then he says: He and three of our friends have been promoted]
After about three years in the special forces, our hell began

Interpretation

Today I know the answer to all my questions and heartache

Blogger Comments:

[1] Again, this confuses markedness with prominence. All Themes are textually prominent, but marked Themes typically carry an added feature of contrast (Halliday & Matthiessen 2014: 105).

[2] To be clear, participants that are not the Subject of a clause, Complements, are very rarely thematic in declarative clauses; examples include now that I like and lobsters I never eat. There are no instances of Complement/Themes in any of the texts analysed by Martin & Rose, and the claim that marked Themes are used to signal a shift in major participants is, at best, unsupported by evidence.

[3] To be clear, here Martin & Rose have borrowed and misused a linguistic term introduced by Vygotsky, who defined scaffolding instruction as the role of teachers and others in supporting the learner's development and providing support structures to get to that next stage or level. The theoretical notion of "scaffolding discontinuity" is thus nonsensical.

[4] To be clear, Helena's story is a temporally ordered autobiography, and she simply thematises temporal circumstances of Location to introduce each time period.

Misanalysing Theme

Martin & Rose (2007: 191):

All the Themes are highlighted, and the marked Themes are underlined below:

He became very quiet.
[He became] Withdrawn.
Sometimes he would just press his face into his hands
and [he would] shake uncontrollably.
I realised
he was drinking too much.
Instead of resting at night, he would wander from window to window.
He tried to hide his wild consuming fear,
but I saw it.
In the early hours of the morning between two and half-past-two, I jolt awake from his rushed breathing.
[He] Rolls this way, that side of the bed.
He's pale.
[He's] ice cold in a sweltering night
[He's] — sopping wet with sweat.
[His] Eyes [are] bewildered,
but [his eyes are] dull like the dead.
And [he had] the shakes.
[He had] The terrible convulsions and blood-curdling shrieks of fear and pain from the bottom of his soul.
Sometimes he sits motionless,
just staring in front of him.

The main recurrent choice for Subject/Theme in this phase is Helena's husband, realised as he. This identity gives us our basic orientation to the field for this phase of discourse; Helena's husband is the hook round which she spins the new information she gives us in each figure. As the Theme of each clause, he is our recurrent point of departure, our angle on the field in each figure. These kinds of Subject/Themes give continuity to a phase of discourse. Because they are the most frequent kind of Theme in discourse, listeners/readers perceive them as 'unmarked' Themes; they are mildly prominent in the flow of discourse, because they are the point of departure for each clause, but because they are typical they are not especially prominent.

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, as previously explained, Martin & Rose misrepresent the data by inserting Themes that the author chose not to instantiate. That is, Martin & Rose give higher textual status (Theme) to elements that the author ellipsed in order to give them lower textual status. Moreover, Martin & Rose mistake the Subjects of clauses with marked Themes for (unmarked) Themes, as previously explained. A thematic analysis that is consistent with SFL Theory is presented below for comparison.

Theme				Rheme
structural	interpersonal	topical
		marked	unmarked
			He	became very quiet, withdrawn
	Sometimes		he	would just press his face into his hands
and				shake uncontrollably
			I	realised
			he	was drinking too much
Instead of				resting at night
			he	would wander from window to window
			He	tried to hide his wild consuming fear
but			I	saw it
		In the early hours of the morning between two and half-past-two		I jolt awake from his rushed breathing
				Rolls this way, that side of the bed
			He	's pale, ice cold in a sweltering night — sopping wet with sweat
Eyes bewildered, but dull like the dead
And the shakes: The terrible convulsions and blood-curdling shrieks of fear and pain from the bottom of his soul
	Sometimes		he	sits motionless
	just			staring in front of him

[2] To be clear, in SFL Theory, 'field' refers to the ideational dimension of the culture as semiotic system; that is, 'field' refers to what is happening in terms of the culture. Martin's use of 'field' typically refers to the ideational semantics of a text, due to the fact that he misunderstands context as register, a sub-potential of language, such that field is the ideational dimension of register.

[3] To be clear, this confuses Rheme (the body of the clause as message) with New information. New information is not restricted to the Rheme of a clause, as demonstrated by every Theme realised by tonic prominence, the phonological realisation of the focus of New information. Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 652):

… thematic status may be combined with either given or new, and the same is true of rhematic status.

[4] To be clear, the figure is a unit in the ideational semantics of Halliday & Matthiessen (1999). Since the concern here is the textual metafunction, the relevant semantic unit is the message.

[5] To be clear, a Theme is not an "angle" on field (see [2]). Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 88, 89):

We may assume that in all languages the clause has the character of a message, or quantum of information in the flow of discourse: it has some form of organisation whereby it fits in with, and contributes to, the flow of discourse. …

The Theme is the element that serves as the point of departure of the message; it is that which locates and orients the clause within its context. The speaker chooses the Theme as his or her point of departure to guide the addressee in developing an interpretation of the message; by making part of the message prominent as Theme, the speaker enables the addressee to process the message.

[6] To be clear, the author's use of ellipsis — which Martin & Rose have undone (see [1]) — gives continuity to this phase of discourse. Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 635):

Ellipsis marks the textual status of continuous information within a certain grammatical structure. At the same time, the non-ellipsed elements of that structure are given the status of being contrastive in the environment of continuous information. Ellipsis thus assigns differential prominence to the elements of a structure: if they are non-prominent (continuous), they are ellipsed; if they are prominent (contrastive), they are present. The absence of elements through ellipsis is an iconic realisation of lack of prominence.

[7] To be clear, this confuses markedness with prominence and attributes a knowledge of SFL theory — the perception of unmarked Themes — to listeners/readers. All Themes are textually prominent, but marked Themes typically carry an added feature of contrast. Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 105):

When some other element comes first, it constitutes a ‘marked’ choice of Theme; such marked Themes usually either express some kind of setting for the clause or carry a feature of contrast.

Marked Themes can be 'doubly prominent' if the focus of New information falls with the Theme. Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 328):

One way of giving prominence to a Theme is to construe it as if it was a circumstance of Matter; e.g. as for the ghost, it hasn’t been seen since. By being first introduced circumstantially, the ghost becomes a focused Theme.

However, as will be seen, such focused Themes are not possible in the periodicity model of Martin & Rose, since it is falsely assumed that New information always falls within the Rheme of a clause.

Seriously Misunderstanding Marked And Unmarked Theme

Martin & Rose (2007: 190-1):

The next step is to highlight Themes — which in writing is basically everything up to and including the participant that functions as the Subject of the clause. …

So the most common choice for the Theme of a clause is the Subject. Ideational meaning that comes before the Subject is referred to as marked Theme, and has a different discourse function from the ordinary Subject/Theme … .

Blogger Comments:

To be clear, this widespread misunderstanding of Theme derives from Martin (1992: 435):

…in English declaratives, unmarked topical Theme is conflated with Subject, whereas marked topical Theme precedes it.

Applying Martin's misunderstanding of Halliday, a clause can consist solely of topical Themes, such that there are multiple points of departure for the clause as message, but no actual body of the message (Rheme) to depart into.  For example:

Blessed	are		the cheesemakers
Theme: marked	Theme: marked		Theme: unmarked
Attribute	Process: relational		Carrier
Complement	Predicator	Finite	Subject
Residue		Mood

Sad	therefore	in his view	is		one way to describe it
Theme: marked	?	Theme: marked	Theme: marked		Theme: unmarked
Attribute		Angle	Process: relational		Carrier
Complement	conjunctive Adjunct	circumstantial Adjunct	Predicator	Finite	Subject
Res-		-idue		Mood

In contrast, Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 91) provide the general principle:

As a general guide to start off with, we shall say that the Theme of a clause is the first group or phrase that has some function in the experiential structure of the clause, i.e. that functions as a participant, a circumstance or the process.

and stipulate (p128) that markedness depends on mood:

The systemic value of ‘unmarked’ and ‘marked’ theme depends on the mood selection…

It is for declarative clauses that the Subject is the unmarked Theme (p97):

In a declarative clause, the typical pattern is one in which Theme is conflated with Subject; …. We shall refer to the mapping of Theme on to Subject as the unmarked Theme of a declarative clause. The Subject is the element that is chosen as Theme unless there is good reason for choosing something else.

But if Subject is not Theme, the selected Theme is a marked Theme (p98):

A Theme that is something other than the Subject, in a declarative clause, we shall refer to as a marked theme. The most usual form of marked Theme is an adverbial group, e.g. today, suddenly, somewhat distractedly, or prepositional phrase, e.g. at night, in the corner, without any warning functioning as Adjunct in the clause. Least likely to be thematic is a Complement, which is a nominal group that is not functioning as Subject – something that could have been a Subject but is not…

Most importantly, where the Subject is not selected as Theme, it is part of the Rheme (p105):

When some other element comes first, it constitutes a ‘marked’ choice of Theme; such marked Themes usually either express some kind of setting for the clause or carry a feature of contrast. Note that in such instances the element that would have been the unmarked choice as Theme is now part of the Rheme.

A clause has, at most, one topical Theme: either unmarked or marked.