| Thematic Progression (TP) and the relationship between Theme and Rheme are the main areas of study in discourse analysis. And the different TP patterns can help to understand the logical and coherent flow of information in a text. Abundant and profound studies have been conducted on TP both at home and abroad. Some contrastive analyses of TP between Chinese and English are also made, concerning TP patterns in journalistic texts and academic papers, implications of TP for listening and writing, etc. However, contrastive analysis of TP in advertisement texts in Chinese and English is a largely neglected area.This thesis is a contrastive study of TP in Chinese and English advertisement texts with a view to contribute to the understanding of the organizing patterns of advertisements due to their increasing importance in today's world. This study is aimed to prove two hypotheses: 1) Chinese and English advertisement texts are supposed to show similar and different frequencies in the use of different TP patterns; and 2) advertisements for different products may prefer different TP patterns. This thesis consists of seven chapters.In Chapter 1, some relevant definitions are given and illustrated, such as Theme and Rheme, and Given and New. Besides, significance of the study, research methodology and theoretical hypothesis are also introduced.Chapter 2 introduces Halliday's five different types of Themes, including simple Theme, multiple Theme, clausal Theme, predicted Theme and ellipsis Theme, and unmarked and marked Themes.Chapter 3 provides a brief overview of the researches on TP patterns carried out both abroad and at home; and in doing, an analytical framework of the study is established on the basis of other scholars' models, which classifies TP patterns into the following 6 types: T-T, R-T, R-R, T-R, T1-Tn+1 and T-T1+n/R-T1+n.Chapter 4 specifies the research design of the study, including research method, data description and sampling, method of identifying Theme and Rheme and research procedures. Chapter 5 presents a TP pattern analysis of the 40 advertisements for 10 different products chosen from Chinese and English periodicals, newspapers, printed books, internet, etc., aiming to find out the similarities and differences in the frequency of use of different TP patterns in Chinese and English advertisements. These advertisements are simplified and diagramed according to the TP patterns they exhibit. This analysis is based on the theoretical framework of the 6 patterns established in Chapter 3.In Chapter 6, an attempt to interpret the similarities and differences between the use of TP patterns in Chinese and English advertisement texts is made. Some new concepts are introduced. The results show that advertisement texts in both Chinese and English use with T-T and R-T patterns more frequently in order to attract the readers'attention, followed by R-R, T-R, T1-Tn+1 and T-T1+n/R-T1+n. However, there are a number of differences in use of TP patterns in the Chinese and English advertisements, and also in the distribution of different TP patterns in the Chinese and English advertisements for different types of products.Chapter 7 discusses the theoretical significance and practical implications of the study. Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research are also presented in this chapter.This study can help advertisement readers better understand the information flow of advertisements, and provide some guidance for the advertisement translators to make necessary rearrangements in sentence patterns or information focus according to the similarities and differences of advertisements in English or Chinese in terms of thematic progression. The analytical framework established in this study may also be used as a frame of reference in the studies on TP patterns in other genres. |
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