Meaning Making in Text

Multimodal and Multilingual Functional Perspectives

S. Starc, C. Jones, A. Maiorani, S. Starc, C. Jones, A. Maiorani

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781137477309
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Teaching Languages

Meaning Making in Text presents new insights into forms of communication in a range of contexts: cultural, linguistic, multimodal and educational. The thirteen chapters are all linked theoretically by advances in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL).

Part I
Perspectives on Language in Text

Introduction

The five chapters in this part all advance the theory methodologically by focusing on the lexicogrammar in different linguistic contexts and on demonstrating how specific context-driven strategies can be analysed through the use of methodologies that reveal meaningful structural patterns.

The first chapter by Banks explores how meaning-making processes in academic writing change in time, taking as an example the eminent historical French publication the Journal des Sçavans, first published in 1665 and still published nowadays. In Chapter 2, Rahtu demonstrates the controversies surrounding the use of the first person in Finnish academic texts. In Chapter 3, Bulc and Gorjanc examine the use of connectors in Slovene and Croatian on the grounds that they necessitate advanced competences in successful socialization into a discourse community and advanced language skills for successful meaning making. In Chapter 4, Plemenitaš proposes a cognitive perspective for examining nominalization, a prominent feature of SFL lexicogrammar. In Chapter 5, Pagano and Lukin examine the role of language in the construction of a verbal artefact by proposing a methodology for text analysis.

1

Thematic Structure and Progression in Some Late Seventeenth-Century French Texts

David Banks

1.1 Introduction

The Journal des Sçavans was published for the first time on 5 January 1665. It was the first periodical publication of an academic nature in a vernacular language. It was followed two months later, on 6 March 1665, by the Philosophical Transactions. Both of these publications still exist, so they are of particular interest in the history of academic writing (Banks 2009). For several years now, I have been working on various linguistics aspects of the Journal des Sçavans and the Philosophical Transactions in the period 1665–1700. My corpus includes issues from the years 1665, 1675, 1685 and 1695, and totals over 140,000 words. In this chapter¹ I shall deal specifically with a problem raised by the thematic analysis of texts in early issues of the Journal des Sçavans. For purposes of illustration I shall use examples from the issue of 9 March 1665. There is nothing particularly special about this issue, and it is precisely the fact that it is fairly similar to other issues that makes it useful for our purposes, in that it can be taken as being representative of the other issues of the period. Analysis of the thematic structure and progression of these texts seem to indicate that a standard systemic functional analysis is less than satisfactory, because of the intricacy of the syntactic structure of the clauses. I shall suggest a possible way forward, which gives an analysis that seems more satisfactory.

1.2 The standard model

I take it that the standard Hallidayan model of thematic analysis involves the following points (Halliday 2014, Banks 2005):

1. Theme is defined as the speaker’s point of departure, and is realized in French (as in English) by being placed in initial position in the clause.

2. The thematic material has an obligatory element, the topical theme, which functions grammatically as a major constituent of the clause, i.e. as subject, circumstantial adjunct, predicator, or complement. For example:

John drinks coffee at breakfast time. (Subject as topical theme)

At breakfast time, John drinks coffee. (Circumstantial adjunct as topical theme)

Drink your coffee, John! (Predicator as topical theme)

Coffee John drinks at breakfast time. (Complement as topical theme)

3. The topical theme may be preceded by textual or interpersonal themes, which are optional. For example:

However, John drinks coffee at breakfast time. (Textual theme)

Perhaps John drinks coffee at breakfast time. (Interpersonal theme)

4. A subordinate clause in initial position functions like a circumstantial adjunct, and hence as topical theme.

As soon as he gets up, John makes coffee. (Subordinate clause, functioning like a circumstantial adjunct, and hence topical theme)

5. Thematic progression concerns the topical themes of ranking clauses, but not rank-shifted or subordinate clauses. Where a theme is derived from a previous (but not necessarily the immediately previous) rheme, this is called linear progression. Where a theme is derived from a previous (though not necessarily the immediately previous) theme, this is called constant theme. Some analysts distinguish a third type of theme, sometimes called a hypertheme, derived from a basic idea expressed in the text. I feel this is of a different order from linear and constant theme, and may well be present even where there is a linear or constant theme. I shall not use the hypertheme in my analyses.

This view of thematic structure has its origins in the work of the Prague School, probably most easily available and accessible as Firbas (1992). However, where the Prague School favour an integrated system which combines thematic structure (theme–rheme) and information structure (given–new), Halliday treats these as separate structures, which, among other things, enables us as here to treat thematic structure on its own. The point of view adopted here also differs from that of Fries (e.g. Fries 2002), who bases his analyses on the T-unit, which consists of an independent clause plus all the hypotactically related clauses which are dependent on it. His objective is different in that it is aimed at coming to grips with the new in written discourse where the placement of the tonic accent is not overt. In addition, there are a number of differing views as to exactly what is to be included in the thematic material of the clause (Berry 1996), including that which claims that everything up to and including the subject should be considered theme. Nevertheless, the point of view adopted here, that theme consists of the first major component in the clause, plus whatever precedes it, is probably the most widely accepted of the various possibilities.

1.3 Example 1. Transcription and analysis

The contents of the Journal des Sçavans is made up mainly of book reviews or notices. The following is a transcription of an item from the issue for 9 March 1665. The original spelling has been retained, but the ‘long-s’ has been replaced by a contemporary ‘s’:

RFLEXIONS, OV SENTENCES ET

Maximes Morales. A Paris, Chez C. Barbin, au Palais.

Vne personne de grande qualité, & de grand merite, passe pour estre Autheur de ces Maximes. Mais quelque lumiere & quelque discernement qu’il paroistre dans cet Ouurage, il n’a pas empesché que l’on n’en ait fait des iugemens bien differens.

L’on peut dire neantmoins que ce traité est fort vtile; parce qu’il découure aux hommes les fausses idées qu’ils ont d’eux mesmes; qu’il leur fait voir que sans le Christianisme, ils sont incapables de faire aucun bien, qui ne soit meslé d’imperfection; & que rien n’est plus aduantageux, que de se connoistre tel, que l’on est en effet; afin de n’estre plus trompé par la fausse connoissance que l’on a toûjours de soy-mesme.

Il y a tant d’esprit dans cét ouurage, & vne si grande penetration, pour demesler la varieté des sentimens du cœur de l’homme, que toutes les personnes iudicieuses y trouueront vne infinité de choses fort vtiles qu’elles auroient peut-estre ignorées toute leur vie; si l’Autheur des Maximes ne les auoit tirées du chaos, pour les mettre dans vn iour où quasi tout le monde les peut voir, & les peut comprendre sans peine.²

The heading gives the title of the book under review, its place of publication, and the bookseller where it can be bought.

Table 1.1 is an analysis using the standard model outlined above. It uses the following abbreviations:

Th1, Th2, etc. means theme of first clause, theme of second clause, etc.

Rh1, Rh2, etc. means rheme of first clause, rheme of second clause, etc.

Th.Top means topical theme.

Th.Txt means textual theme.

Rh means rheme.

Th1 → Rh1 gives the structure of the clause: theme of first clause followed by rheme of first clause.

An oblique arrow,

, means that the theme is derived from a previous rheme.

Although there are no examples here, a vertical arrow would indicate that the theme was derived from a previous theme.

There are four ranking clauses. The first has a topical theme, Une personne de grande qualité et de grande merite, which functions as subject. The second has a textual theme, Mais, and a topical theme, quelque discernement qu’il paroistre dans cet Ouurage, which functions as adjunct. This theme (Th2) contains the segment cet Ouurage, which is derived from ces Maximes in the preceding rheme (Rh1), thus providing a linear link indicated by the oblique arrow leading to Th2. The third ranking clause has a topical theme, L’on, which functions as subject. This is identical with the L’on of the previous rheme, thus providing another linear link. The fourth ranking clause is existential, with the pronoun Il functioning as the existential subject. This has no progressive link with the previous text.

Table 1.1 Standard analysis of Example 1

The following is a transcription of the item with the thematic material boxed:

Vne personne de grande qualité, & de grand merite, passe pour estre Autheur de ces Maximes.

Mais quelque lumiere & quelque discernement qu’il paroistre dans cet Ouurage, il n’a pas empesché que l’on n’en ait fait des iugemens bien differens.

L’on peut dire neantmoins que ce traité est fort vtile; parce qu’il découure aux hommes les fausses idées qu’ils ont d’eux mesmes; qu’il leur fait voir que sans le Christianisme, ils sont incapables de faire aucun bien, qui ne soit meslé d’imperfection; & que rien n’est plus aduantageux, que de se connoistre tel, que l’on est en effet; afin de n’estre plus trompé par la fausse connoissance que l’on a toûjours de soy-mesme.

Ily a tant d’esprit dans cét ouurage, & vne si grande penetration, pour demesler la varieté des sentimens du cœur de l’homme, que toutes les personnes iudicieuses y trouueront vne infinité de choses fort vtiles qu’elles auroient peut-estre ignorées toute leur vie; si l’Autheur des Maximes ne les auoit tirées du chaos, pour les mettre dans vn iour où quasi tout le monde les peut voir, & les peut comprendre sans peine.

The model seems to work fairly well for the first two clauses. However, this cannot be said of the second two. The rhemes are long and complex, while the themes are minimally short, and there is no progressive link between these two clauses. This seems to fly in the face of the idea that thematic progression plays a significant role in the argument structure of a text (Halliday 1988, 1998). At the same time, although complex, these clauses, when read, seem perfectly coherent, and in no way disjointed or lacking in argument structure. Hence it would seem that the standard method of analysis is less than satisfactory and that it would be in order to look for alternative ways of analysing the thematic structure of these clauses, or at least adapting the model to accommodate the syntactic complexity of this type of discourse.

1.4 A suggested modification and analysis of clause 3

The suggestion I would make is that instead of limiting thematic progression to the themes of ranking clauses, we find a way of integrating the themes of subordinate and rank-shifted clauses into...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Tables
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgements
• Notes on the Contributors
• Introduction: Sonja Starc, Carys Jones, Arianna Maiorani
• Part I Perspectives on Language in Text
• Part II Developments in Multimodal Discourse Analysis
• Part III Applications to Pedagogy
• Subject Index
• Name Index