Misrepresenting Theme

Martin, Matthiessen & Painter (2010: 276):

Let's begin with a theme analysis, focussing on ranking clauses. We'll box in Themes, shading marked Themes and treating as unmarked Theme any Subject Themes which follow them. Our reason for doing this is to highlight the complementary role played by marked and unmarked Themes – marked Themes to shift our orientation; unmarked Themes to sustain our perspective.

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To be clear, this seriously misrepresents Theme, and is even inconsistent with the authors' own account of Theme in Chapter 2. In SFL Theory, there is only one topical Theme to a clause: either unmarked or marked. In a declarative clause, a Subject that follows a marked Theme falls within the Rheme. Halliday & Matthiessen (2014: 105):

When some other element comes first, it constitutes a ‘marked’ choice of Theme; such marked Themes usually either express some kind of setting for the clause or carry a feature of contrast. Note that in such instances the element that would have been the unmarked choice as Theme is now part of the Rheme. …

The guiding principle of thematic structure is this: the Theme contains one, and only one, of these experiential elements. This means that the Theme of a clause ends with the first constituent that is either participant, circumstance or process. We refer to this constituent, in its textual function, as the topical Theme.