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3.5 Theme The theme is the defined as Halliday (1985: 39) as
the element which serves as the starting point for the message He went further to say that the Theme is what the clause is all about. Inmost cases, the Theme assumes the first position in the clause. For example
8.6.
The president of Nigeria is from the northern part of the country The Theme here refers to a person.
In other instance, it may refer to places, time,
attitude, and so forth, as we can see in the following
examples respectively 8.6. In Ghana,
Nigeria lost a football match 8.7. Last week, I went to Cotonou byroad 8.8.
In my own opinion, you are wrong 3.6 Rheme The Rheme is defined by Eggins (1993: 275) as
that part of the clause in which the Theme is developed. It is every other part of the clause apart from the Theme. The Rheme is the part of the clause that contains the real message of the clause. The speaker/writer departs at the point of the Theme to supply the message to the hearer/reader.
Self-assessment Exercices Take two newspaper editorials and identify the Themes and Rhemes in theme. Also, identify the Given and New information in them. Now, compare the differences and similarities in the Theme/Rheme and Given/New information.
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