Misrepresenting Rhematic And Ellipsed Subjects As Theme [3]

Martin, Matthiessen & Painter (2010: 277):

We then shift via a marked Theme to the Bondi Boys, who are unmarked Theme in every clause involving the rescue; in addition we find another marked Theme, as one, emphasising the intensity of their cooperation.

Blogger Comments:

The authors' analysis is misleading. On the one hand, since the first and last clauses have marked Themes, the Subjects this and they are not thematic, but fall within the Rheme (Halliday & Matthiessen 2014: 105). On the other hand, since the included dependent clause << ignoring their own possible peril >> has an ellipsed Subject, it has no Theme. The absence of elements through ellipsis marks lack of textual prominence, and the analysis of ellipsed elements as Themes misrepresents them as textually prominent; see Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 635).

The analysis also falsely interprets the included dependent clause as a marked Theme within its clause complex. To be clear, such clauses are not marked Themes, because there is no agnate unmarked Theme for such instances. See Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 549-53).