On theme in English and Spanish: a comparative study

Abstract

This paper presents a contrastive study within the general, expanding context of applications of SFL (Systemic Functional Linguistics) to LOTE (Languages Other Than English). It compares thematic resources in English and Spanish, and thus seeks to contribute to the ever-widening understanding of the scope and functions of Theme and the different ways of organizing the message in the clause across languages. The paper looks at issues such as the effect of Subject-drop – e.g. (i) tengo frio ([I] am cold) or (ii) ayer te vi ([I] saw you yesterday) – on thematic choices within the clause and, consequently, on the textual method of development. In particular, it will be argued that Subject-drop does not entail the existence of an implicit Subject Theme but rather the deployment of strategies different from those found in languages such as English. I will argue that the different thematic resources in English and Spanish are ultimately motivated by the different metafunctional tensions existing in each language. Since the notion of Theme was first introduced (Mathesius 1924, 1939), many pages have been devoted to enhancing our understanding of this semantic category. Linguists within the sphere of the Prague School have discussed the role played by Theme, mostly in terms of its contribution to the communicative dynamism (CD) of the sentence and the establishment of the functional sentence On Theme in English and Spanish: a comparative study

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