Ellipsed Topical Theme

Martin, Matthiessen & Painter (2010: 29):

Where two clauses are linked by coordination – in a paratactic structure – the Subject of the second clause may be ellipsed or ‘understood’:

He roared in fury || and ( ) struggled with all his might

In such a case the ellipsed Subject of the second clause counts as the (ellipsed) topical Theme. Consequently, the Process (struggled) is not the Theme.

Blogger Comments:

This is potentially misleading. The ellipsed Subject would have been topical Theme, if it hadn't been ellipsed. Since the Subject is ellipsed, it is not topical Theme. In such clauses, the topical Theme is omitted. Importantly, the function of ellipsis is remove an element from textual prominence, and so to assign it thematic status is to contradict the textual function of ellipsis. Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 635):

Ellipsis marks the textual status of continuous information within a certain grammatical structure. At the same time, the non-ellipsed elements of that structure are given the status of being contrastive in the environment of continuous information. Ellipsis thus assigns differential prominence to the elements of a structure: if they are non-prominent (continuous), they are ellipsed; if they are prominent (contrastive), they are present. The absence of elements through ellipsis is an iconic realisation of lack of prominence.