Actual Division of the Sentence 1 The problem

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Actual Division of the Sentence 1. The problem of Terminology 2. Direct and Indirect Actual Division 3. The Connection of Actual Division of the Sentence with Syntax 4. The Formal Means of Expressing the Actual Division of the Sentence

What is Actual Division of the Sentence? • It is well known fact that the notional parts of the sentence form together the nominative meaning of the sentence. The division of the sentence into notional parts can be called the nominative. The idea of the actual division has been put forward in theoretical linguistics. Its purpose is to reveal the correlative significance of the sentence parts from the point of view of their actual informative role in an utterance. The idea of actual division of the sentence has first been put forward by W. Mathesius

The Problem of Terminology • The actual division of the sentence • Functional sentence perspective • Theme-rheme division of the sentence • Mind that all three terms denote the same thing!

Theme-rheme division of the sentence • Theme • Expresses the starting point of the communication, denotes an object or a phenomenon about which smth is reported • The Rheme • Expresses the basic informative part of the communication, its contextually relevant center • May or may not coincide with the subject of the sentence • May or may not coincide with the predicate of the sentence

• Historically, theory of actual division of the sentence is connected with the logical analysis of the proposition • Logical subject theme • Logical predicate the rheme

In this example we see how rheme becomes a theme New Zealand waters are overfished. This overfishing will have serious consequences. THEME RHEME TRANSITIONAL ELEMENT

Direct and Indirect Actual Division The subject coincides with Theme Direct Actual Division. This old photo wakes up my memories. The Rheme Indirect (Inverted) Actual Division From behind the corner there appeared a smart car

The Connection of Actual Division of the Sentence with Syntax • J. Mathesius sharply opposed this kind of sentence division (when informative parts of the communication are divided into information “already known” by the listener and “not yet known” by him) to the “formally grammatical” or “purely syntactical” division of the sentence

But one should remember that the informative value of developing speech consists in: • 1. Introducing new words that denote things and phenomena not mentioned before • 2. Disclosing various new relations between the elements of reflected events, though the elements themselves may be quite familiar to the listener

The expression of a certain aspect of these relations enters the structural plane of a language • The correlative informative significance of utterance components are rendered by quite definite, generalized and standardized lingual constructions

These constructions are bilateral signemic units (as other meaningful constructions of language) They are distinguished both by their material form and their semantics The constructional side of the phenomenon which is called the “actual division of the sentence” belongs to no other sphere of language than syntax

Rheme can be expressed by: • Word – order patterns • Compare: • Jane stood in the center of the large hall. In the center of the large hall stood Jane • Constructions with introducers, such as there -patterns and it-patterns, which help to identify the subject of the sentence • There came a loud sound (rheme). • It was him (rheme) who made the party a party.

• The use of different determiners • The man came up to me. 6. A man came up to me • Intensifying particles (they identify the rheme) • Even she has done it come. • He is being so kind. • Only then did he realize the situation. • Logical accent (intonation) • Syntactic patterns of contrastive complexes, based on some sort of antithesis, are employed to make explicative the inner contrast inherent in the actual division • This is a real story, not a fiction.

• The thematic reduction of responses in dialogue speech (it serves to identify the rheme of the sentence). In these cases the rheme is placed in isolation. • - Where did you see her last time? • - London. • - Shall we go out tonight? • - Yes. The night club. So we can conclude that the actual division of the sentence is closely connected with the context of communication

The End Thank you for your Attention!

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