On Theme as a grammatical notion for German

We outline an approach to Theme as a grammatical notion for German. Our starting point is some earlier accounts of Theme in the framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics. These are followed by a consideration of some representational requirements for a treatment of Theme in German. We then suggest an initial account of grammatical Theme in German, followed by some questions relating to historical, typological, and functional explanations of differences observed between English and German.