1887
  1. Home
  2. e-Journals
  3. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics
  4. Volume 17, Issue 1
  5. Article
Volume 17, Issue 1
  • ISSN 0155-0640
  • E-ISSN: 1833-7139
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

This paper discusses one identifying feature of journal articles — Reports or Citations. The study focuses on an examination of the syntactic choices available to writers for making reporting statements and the conditions governing such choices. There is a great deal of variation in the forms of the Reports in academic articles and one factor in this seems to be the writer’s choice of a particular element of the message as Theme of the reporting statement. The purpose of this research was to turn up information regarding thematic options and their distribution which would be useful for identifying the patterns of choice that are characteristic of reporting. We investigate the way in which the choice of Theme affects the syntactic form of the Reports. It is suggested that a typology of Reports based on participant Subject in the Theme element can be drawn up. Reports were categorised as having Agent Themes, Text Reference Themes or Content Term Themes. With these three main choices for Theme, variations are created when Textual, Interpersonal or Ideational elements in the form of Circumstantial Adjuncts work in conjunction with the Subject headword. The different syntactic forms of Reports resulting from different thematic choices are shown to be associated with the function of Reports in their contexts.

© 1994 John Benjamins Publishing Company
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/aral.17.1.03tho
1994-01-01
2024-10-04

  • From This Site

    /content/journals/10.1075/aral.17.1.03tho
    dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
    -contentType:Journal -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
    10
    5
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Berry, M.
    (1989) Thematic options and success in writing. In C.S. Butler . R. Cardwell , and J. Channel (eds) Language and literature: Theory and practice. Nottingham, University of Nottingham.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Carter, B.
    (1968) An Examination of Items in Theme Position as an Entry Vehicle for Text Processing of Six Banking Articles. MA Dissertation, University of Birmingham.
  3. Chafe, W.
    (1986) Writing in the perspective of speaking. In C.R. Cooper and S. Greenbaum (eds) Studying writing:Linguistic approaches. Beverly Hills, Sage.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Davies, F.
    (1988) Designing a writing syllabus in English for Academic Purposes: Process and product. In P. Robinson (ed.) Academic writing: Process and product. London, MEP.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. (1989) Reading between the lines: Thematic choice as a device for presenting writer viewpoint in academic discourse. ELR Seminar Paper, University of Birmingham.
  6. Ehrlich, S.
    (1987) Aspect, foregrounding and point of view. InText7,4:363–376
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Enkvist, N.E.
    (1973) Theme dynamics and style: An experiment. Studia Anglia Posnaniensa5:124–135
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Firbas, J.
    (1970) Some aspects of the Czechoslovak approach to problems of functional sentence perspective. Papers on functional sentence perspective: First international symposium. The Hague, Mouton.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. (1986) On the Dynamics of Written Communication in the Light of the Theory of Functional Sentence Perspective. In C. Cooper and S. Greenbaum (eds) Studying writing: Linguistic approaches. Beverly Hills, Sage.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Fries, P.H.
    (1981) On the status of theme in English: arguments from discourse. Forum Linguisticum6,1:1–38. Also in J.S. Petofi and E. Sozer (eds) (1983) Micro and macro connexity of texts. Hamburg, Helmut Buske Verlag (Papers in Text Linguistics45).
     [Google Scholar]
  11. (1986) Language features, textual coherence and reading. Word37,1/2:13–29 doi: 10.1080/00437956.1986.11435764
     https://doi.org/10.1080/00437956.1986.11435764 [Google Scholar]
  12. Giora, R.
    (1983) Segmentation and segment cohesion: On the thematic organization of the text. Text3,2:155–181
     [Google Scholar]
  13. (1985) A text-based analysis of non-narrative texts. Journal of Pragmatics12:115–135.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Halliday, M.A.K.
    (1966) Notes on transitivity and theme in English. Journal of Linguistics3:34–81 and 199–244.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. (1970) The place of functional sentence perspective in the system of linguistic description. Papers on functional sentence perspective: First international symposium. The Hague, Mouton.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. (1985) An introduction to functional grammar. London, Arnold.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. (1988) On the language of physical science. In M. Ghadessy (ed) Registers of written English. London, Pinter.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Huckin, T.N. and L. H. Pesante
    (1988) Existential there. Written Communication5,3:368–391 doi: 10.1177/0741088388005003006
     https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088388005003006 [Google Scholar]
  19. Jones, L.K.
    (1977) Theme in English expository discourse. New York, Jupiter Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Kress, G. and R. Hodge
    (1979) Language as ideology. London, Routledge and Kegan Paul.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Leech, G. and M. Short
    (1981) Style in fiction: A linguistic introduction to English fictional prose. New York, Longman.
  22. Lowe, I.
    (1987) Sentence initial elements in English and their discourse functions. Occasional Papers in Systemic Linguistics2:5–33.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Swales, J.
    (1981) Aspects of Article Introductions. (Aston ESP Research Reports 1)Aston, University of Aston.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. (1990) Genre analysis: English in an academic and research setting. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Taglicht, J.
    (1983) Message and emphasis: On focus and scope in English. London, Longman.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Thomas, S.
    (1991) A merging of voices: An investigation of the way discourse is reported in medical research articles. PhD Thesis, University of Birmingham.
/content/journals/10.1075/aral.17.1.03tho
Loading
  • Article Type: Research Article

Most Cited

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error