Marked Themes and thematic patterns in abstracts, advertisements and administrative documents

Abstract

Themes, which are known as the departure point of information, are considered an essential device in information arrangement and structuring at both the sentence and textual level. However, the assignment of Themes to the function of organizing information in a text ignores the interplay of cohesion and discourse functions in shaping the thematic patterns of that text. This article examines the relationship between thematic patterns and the interactive functions of Marked Themes in three genres—the abstracts of academic articles, advertisements, and administrative documents. Although extant studies have identified the organizational patterns of discourse, they are restricted to a single type of discourse. This article argues that useful insights can be obtained by combining the current framework of the thematic patterns and the proposed framework of interactive functions of themes across clauses. Themes are also shown to play a dynamic role not only in organizing a piece of discourse into a coherent whole, but also in negotiating ideological and interpersonal meanings.