Communicative Structure of the Sentence (Functional Sentence Perspective).

 

The theory that studies the communicative structure of the sentence is called Functional Sentence Perspective, originally known as Actual Division of the Sentence. It was worked out by the scholars of the Prague Linguistic School. The purpose of Functional Sentence Perspective is to reveal the correlative significance of the sentence parts from the point of view of their informative role in an utterance, i.e. the immediate semantic contribution they make to the total information conveyed by the sentence in the context of connected speech. In other words, Functional Sentence Perspective which implies the actual division of the sentence in fact exposes its informative, or communicative structure.

The essence of the Functional Sentence Perspective theory lies in the following fact: when one speaks or writes one conveys information which is organized into communicative structure of sentences the main components of which are the theme and the rheme. The theme represents the starting point of the utterance, denoting an entity or a phenomenon about which something is reported, while the rheme represents the basic informative part of the communication, i.e. what is said in connection with the theme. Between the theme and the rheme are positioned intermediary, transitional parts of the information, sometimes called the «transition.»

On the other hand, the theme-rheme division of the sentence is connected with its informative dynamism. It is the case when the speaker assumes that some of the information, he or she is communicating, is new as it is the information they are introducing for the first time. This implies that part of the information in the sentence is not new as it is already shared by the communicants from the context at the time the sentence is uttered. This shared or «given» piece of information is represented by the theme while the new information is introduced by the rheme. Therefore, the theme can be defined as the starting point of the utterance about which something is reported and which is known in the given situation, or at least can be gathered from the previous context, while the rheme is regarded as something new the speaker says about the theme.

The relationship between the communicative (i.e. actual) and the syntactic divisions of the sentence. In English, due to the fixed word-order, the actual division of the sentence into the theme and the rheme mostly coincides with its syntactic division: the theme coincides with the subject of the sentence, while the rheme coincides either with the whole predicate group or its parts, such as the predicative, the object, the adverbial. This kind of actual division when the communicative structure of the sentence coincides with its grammatical (i.e. syntactic) structure, is referred to as «direct actual division».

Consider, for example, the following sentences of various emotional character, which belong to this type of communicative structure:

Max bounded forward.

Again Charlie is being too clever!

Her advice can't be of any help to us.

In the first of the above sentences the theme coincides with the subject - Max, while the rheme coincides with the whole predicate group - bounded forward. In the second sentence the adverbial introducer again can be characterized as a transitional, or informationally intermediary element between the theme (Charlie:) and the rheme, the latter being represented by the rest of the predicative group expressed by the intensified predicative too clever. In the third sentence the prepositional object to us, denoting the narrator, is more or less transitional element, whereas the informative peak once more coincides with the predicative - of any help.

But the communicative (i.e. informational) structure of the sentence doesn't always coincide with its syntactic structure. The actual division, in which the rheme is rendered by the subject and the theme - by the predicate or its part, can be reviewed as «reverse actual division». For example:

Through the open window came the purr of an approaching motor car.

The actual division of the sentence is closely connected with a concrete context of speech which makes it possible to divide the informative parts of the communication into those «already known» or «not yet known» to the listener or reader. Consider, for example, the circumstances under which the sentences like the following might be uttered:

1. The box is empty.

2. The girl had a little basket in her hand.

 

The strongest logical stress and highest pitch fall on the words empty and basket, being the centre of communication. The first sentence might be uttered when, for example, the speaker and the hearer, sharing the common physical environment, have both been confronted by a box. Therefore, the box represents the theme of the information, while is empty represents its rheme. In the second sentence, the girl is treated as the theme of the message, while a basket is considered to be the rheme carrying a new piece of information for whose sake the sentence has been uttered. Such a distribution of the information according to its oldness and newness is possible due to the linguistic context that might have been created by the previous sentence: They saw a girl walking along the path.

Most sentences in English admit the theme-rheme division. However there is a number of sentences which convey only new information. These are mainly impersonal sentences with dummy «it» (It is raining. It is morning. There was a lot of war. And passive constructions without the «by-object» in them, the subject used with a zero article (For example: Shop and office windows were smashed. Cars were burnt.).

Among the linguistic means that mark the distinction between the theme and the rheme researchers name such structural elements of the language as word-order patters, intonation contours, constructions with introducers, syntactic patterns of contrastive complexes, constructions with articles and other determiners and constructions with intensifying particles.

Linguistic means of expressing the centre of communication (i.e. the rheme). To specify the rheme of communication, the following devices are used in English:

1. The indefinite article and indefinite pronouns:

«A man walked into the room.» «Any explanation will suit me.»

 

2. The constructions «There is/there are»:

«There was a sound of footsteps.» «There are some books on the table.»

 

3. Complex sentences with emphatic «it»:

«It was Laura who had seen him.» «It was at my mother's that I met them.»

 

4. Passive constructions in which the by-object is the communicative centre:

«I was awaken by a knock at the door.» «Our house was built by my grandfather,.» Unlike these sentences, other passive sentences admit of the theme-rheme division:

«The little boy was taken to hospital.»

 

5. Intensifying particles identify the rheme, adding emotional colouring to the whole utterance:

«Even Mr. Brown had a part in the general debate.» «We were so impressed to see him in this play.»

 

6. Inversion. In English, due to the fixed word-order, the actual division of the sentence into the theme and the rheme mostly coincides with its syntactic division into the grammatical subject and predicate. Still, in other contextual conditions, mainly in emphatic speech, the reverse order of actual division is used, the rheme preceding the theme. For example:

«Magic words you are speaking, Nancy.» «How well you look!»

 

7. Intonation. In oral speech intonation with its accent-patterns presents itself as a universal means of expressing the actual division in all types of contexts, accompanying all the other means of marking the centre of a communication. E.g.: «I have bought a 'dress for Mother» (the rheme is a dress, being marked by a logical stress), and «' I have bought a dress for Mother» (in which the rheme is represented by the subject «I», marked by the stress).