A survey of theme/rheme relation in English books: A functionalist Approach

Every sentence begins with an element called theme, which is followed by elements referred to as rheme. According to Haliday, rheme which introduces the subject to reader, is in fact the point of departure of the message. Theme can appear in the form of marked, unmarked, simple, or complex. Processing marked, complex theme is more difficult for the reader than unmarked theme. Marked theme is more frequent in the texts which are closer to spoken language. Since psychologically, the word order of the sentence has definite effect on understanding the message, choosing the type of theme and thematic structure is of special importance in textbooks. In the present paper, theme/rheme structure in the two following books will be probed into: New Interchange (3), and Pre-university English book, both designed for the same age group. The aim of the present paper is to indicate that Interchange (3) makes use of the spoken language more than pre-university English books.