Thematic Structure In English

This dissertation investigates the thematic structure in English with a grammaticalization approach. It outlines the characteristics of the thematic structure in Old English, Middle English and Modern English and analyzes the shift of thematic markedness over the historical stages. It also examines the evolution of important thematic transformations from a grammaticalization perspective. The dissertation develops the conclusions that the thematic markedness in English has experienced a process of grammaticalization with the subject being grammaticalized as the only constituent of unmarked theme and that the rise of some grammatical structures in English has been triggered by the need of thematic expression.It has been long since the synchronic approach and the diachronic approach were separated as two distinctive approaches to language study. The recent trend in linguistics now requires the two approaches to enjoy equal status. It is in this context that this study is conducted in a way that the two approaches are integrated. The present study is a diachronic analysis of thematic structure in English based on synchronic descriptions.The theories and methods adopted in the present study cover two areas: thematic structure and grammaticalization. In Chapter 2, we make a brief review of these theories and methods."Theme"is different from"subject","topic", and"given information"in that it is defined only with regard to its position– the initial element in a sentence. Thematic structure is related to grammatical structure in that thematization has to be realized by grammatical means. Thematization is both dependent on and restricted by the grammatical devices that a language possesses. The grammatical devices for the purposes of thematization can be termed as"thematic transformations"or"thematizing devices". We briefly discuss six thematic transformations: (1) topicalization, (2) passivization, (3) tough movement, (4) subject and object raising, (5) extraposition, and (6) cleft sentences and pseudo-cleft sentences.The concept of grammaticalization has been expanded from its tradition definition to a...