National open university of nigeria school of arts and social sciences

50
Unit 2: Thematic Progression
Contents

1.0 Introduction
2.0 Unit Objectives
3.0 Main Content
3.1 Thematic Progression
3.2 The Constant Theme Pattern
3.3 The Linear Theme Pattern
3.4 The Split Rheme Pattern
3.5 Derived Theme Pattern
4.0 Identifying Themes in Discourse
5.0 Conclusion
6.0 Summary
Tutor-marked Assignment
7.0 References/Further Reading
1.0 Introduction
This Unit is a continuation of what we looked at in the last Unit. Thematic structure deals with how the message is organized in the clause. Some scholars went beyond the organization of the message in the clause to how thematic choices work in instances of language use longer than the clause, for instance text. They focus on how the theme is organized across sentence boundaries, how themes progress from one sentence to another. This Unit will look at all these
2.0
Unit Objectives
At the end of your study of this Unit, you should be able to do the following
• explain the concept of Thematic Progression
• illustrate the different thematic progression patterns
• identify any of the TP patterns when you see them in a text
3.0
Main Content

3.1
Thematic Progression
In the last Unit, we looked at the concepts of Theme and Rheme in clauses. We did not go beyond the clause. However, in looking at Thematic Progression, we will look at

51 how themes indifferent clauses associate and how the entire text becomes a meaningful whole through this interaction. Thematic Progression (TP) refers to how one theme progresses into another from clause to clause. Danes (1974) identified four types of Thematic Progression. In the following sections, we shall discuss each of these in succession.

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