Information flow & theme/rheme

One might assume this blurb is about grammar. Correct, but a word now about grammar. By grammar, we do not mean what our primary school teachers meant by the word. We do not mean such prescriptions as "never start a sentence with a conjunction" (even though professional writers do so - effectively - all the time. We do not mean never end a sentence with a preposition even though most folks can not tell the difference between a phrasal verb (such as give up) versus an adverb (such as up). Worse, most folks can't tell the difference between a phrasal verb and a prepositional verb, such as to put up with, where the "preposition" with has no meaning except for being part of the verb as a whole. Think of Churchill's famous quip for using that prepositional verb above, for example. We mean none of that nonsense here.

Instead, we will use the word syntax, from the Greek, in its original meaning. 'Arrangement.' This blurb focuses on the arrangement of clauses, clause after clause after clause, at two different levels of analyses, to illustrate that for many first-year college writers we can see a developmental process (true first language learning), as FYC writers grapple with the flow of information within the clause and the multi-clause sentence, which is a first step to controlling connections between clauses and sentences.

As a starting point, let's consider the first sentence of James Fenton's amazing piece called The Snap Revolution (which happens to contain three clauses):

A man sets light to himself, promising his followers that he will rise again in three hours.

Next, let's consider what we might call "information structure" within the clause. Let's assume that clauses have a combination of old information and new information. In human languages, information generally moves from old to new, for reasons of coherence. (Exceptions do exist, of course. usually for emphasis.)

Old information	New information
A man	sets light to himself

Think of Fenton's choices here: as grammatical subject (the old information in this example), he chooses a man — as ordinary, as generic, as he could get. Then, Fenton writes something extraordinary to deliver the new information into the clause. As readers, Fenton compels us. Why would anyone do such a thing? We have to know, so Fenton propels us forward to the next sentence, the next paragraph. We need that question answered. That is the power of information flow within one single, simple, opening clause.

Now, we must consider another level of syntax, thematic structure. Theme and rheme.

To illustrate this level of "grammatical" analysis, though, let's consider this line from Mark Twain:

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

Want to ruin this clever line? Try these paraphrases:

1. It is time to pause -- whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority -- and reflect.
2. It is time to pause and reflect, whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority.

Nothing interesting or memorable about sentences (1) or (2), is there? All three are grammatically well-formed. The subordinate clause (whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority) functions as an adverbial within the main clause, and as an adverbial, it can appear sentence-initially (as Twain writes it), sentence-medially, as in (1), or sentence-finally, as in (2).

Why does Twain's version work so much better than any of the other versions? After all, each sentence uses the exact same words, just different arrangements. And that "just a different arrangement" makes all the difference. Here we see the power of a well-chosen theme (the first part of a theme-rheme structure that exists in each clause). Think of theme as the initial starting point of the clause as a message, as Halliday described it all the way back in 1967. By placing the adverbial sentence-initially, Twain thematizes Whenever, which immediately tells the reader that this sentence will be a proclamation — a proclamation from Mark Twain. The reader already knows this will be humorous and thoughtful. My poor paraphrases, in (1) and (2), ruins the whole effect. Those sentences thematize the existential it, a function word. A place holder. Nothing to look at there.

The metaphor we want to use here is stage-craft. If we were to stage a theatrical production, we know that backdrops are important (the rheme in this metaphor). We know that stage-left, stage-right, are important. However, we know that whatever is center stage, and to the front, is most important (the theme, in this metaphor). Think of theme as setting the stage.

As teachers and students of writing, we can apply these concepts to the work of our students in first-year composition (FYC). For example, consider sentence from our corpus of FYC:

In my opinion many of the parents living with these children need councelling [sic] or family councelling, in order to alleviate many of the lack of communications, which were revealed, which councelling some of these children's … problems, which often would cause a child to give other forms of substitution, many of which were relating to some criminal tendancies …, which often was revealed to the counselor.

Schematically, we can see more clearly what the student was attempting to do. Note the chaining of the relative clauses, suggesting an unbreakable sequence of causes and effects. Note too the attempt to use parallelism to emphasize the writer's intended meaning here.

Main clause	In my opinion many of the parents living with these children need councelling or family councelling
Subordinate clause	in order to alleviate many of the lack of communications
Relative clause A	which were revealed
Relative clause B	which councelling some of these children's … problems
Relative clause C	which often would cause a child to give other forms of substitution
Relative clause D	many of which were relating to some criminal tendancies …,
Relative clause E	which often was revealed to the counselor.

However, the sentence above just does not work. Like my poor paraphrases of Twain, the repetion of the relative pronoun thematically add nothing to "setting the stage" for the clause as a message or to manage the flow of information within each in such a way we feel the writer is building more and more new information coherently into the sentence as a whole.

By contrast, let's examine James Fenton's opening sentence of The Snap Revolution again. 

Sentence 1
Clause 1 (the "main" clause)
Theme	Rheme
			Clause 2 (1st subordinate clause)
			Theme	Rheme
					Clause 3 (2nd subordinate clause)
					Theme	Rheme
subject	verb	adverbial	subordinator	direct object	subordinator	subject		verb	adverbial	adverbial
noun phrase	verb phrase	prepositional phrase	-ing participle	noun phrase	subordinating conjunction	pronoun		verb phrase	adverb	prepositional phrase
A man	sets light	to himself	promising	his followers	that	he		will rise	again	in three hours

What is particularly fetching in the first sentence is the way Fenton thematizes promising in the second (reduced) –ing clause.  He could have made other choices:

1. A man sets light to himself, and he is promising his followers that he will rise again in three hours.
2. A man sets light to himself, while he was promising his followers that he will rise again in three hours.

But he doesn't.  He purposely thematizes just that participial verb.  Only one other character in all of western literature made a promise like that.  By thematizing the verb, Fenton simultaneously builds intertextuality and pulls us further into his narrative.