INTRODUCTION
Rationale of the Study
The theory of systemic functional linguistics was originally formulated by M.A.K
Halliday in the early 1960s This is a new model and method of description of language known as Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) in which everything can be explained, ultimately, by reference to how language is used Different from formal grammar which focuses on written language and deals with rules of correct usage rather than with meaning and context of the text, functional grammar centers on both written and spoken language and emphasize how linguistic structures express meaning and views language as a communicative resource, not as grammatical rules It is considered “an effective tool of analysis, which solves the issues left out by traditional grammar” as it helps understand human language more deeply
Systemic Funtional Grammar is a system of meanings associated with three Metafunctions, each indicating how the language was structured to be used These three Metafuctions are related to 1) Interpersonal meanings, which focus on the social function of language, more specifically, the participants; 2) Ideational meanings, focusing on how language is used, that is, the verbal choices, and; 3) Textual meanings, which focus on how the message is organized, that is, what information is chosen to appear first (or last) in a sentence or text
It is the third metafuntion (Textual) that involves the concepts of Theme and Rheme which is one in two things of the basic for my research Theme has been studied by many grammarians such as Mathesius (1975); Halliday and Hasan (1976); Fries (1981);
Firbas (1986); Halliday (1985, 1994); Downing (1990); Davies (1987), Eggins (1994);
Matthiessen (1995); Thompson (1996) and many others Accoding to Halliday (1994:
34), Theme is “what the message is concerned with, the point of departure for what the speaker is going to say” “The Theme is what I, the speaker, choose to take as my point of departure… Theme + Rheme is speaker – oriented” (Halliday, 1994: 299) For Halliday, the thematic organization of clauses is the most significant aspect for the development of a text By analyzing the thematic structure of a text it is possible to observe its nature and understand how the writer exposed his concerns with the organization of the message Eggin (1994: 273) also says that thematic meanings are related to the potential which the clause confers to its constituents to be differently organized in order to reach different purposes Based on these theories, many researchers have tried to analyze a text clause by clause to gain an insight into its texture and understand how the writer made clear to us the nature of his underlying concerns I would like to try myself to analyze the theme-rheme structure of the short story “The Last Leaf” by O‟Henry who is famous for short stories and their unexpected endings with the hope of exploring how the writer develop the text and what the purpose is
Cohesive ties of the text are also of great concern to me in this study Cohesion relates to the “semantic ties” within text whereby a tie is made when there is some dependent link between items that combine to create meaning Using the short story “The Last Leaf” as a basis, the textual aspect of meaning through cohesion will be analyzed
As regards practical purposes, understanding the theme-rheme structure and how cohesion functions within text to create semantic links could be beneficial to students of English as a second or foreign language to help “decode” meaning
For those reasons, I have decided to choose “A study on Theme-Rheme and
Cohesive Ties in the short story “The Last Leaf” by O’Henry” as the title of my
MA Thesis, using Halliday‟s functional grammar as a theoretical framework.
Aims of the Study
The aim of this stury is to use systemic functional framework to explore how O‟Henry organized and developed his story “The Last Leaf” in terms of the theme – rheme patterns and cohesive ties To realize this aim, the following two questions are raised for exploration
1 How is the text organized and developed in terms of theme-rheme patterns?
2 How are the different cohesive ties of contexts hung together to make the text cohesive?
To answer these questions, I will review some fundamental concepts for the study: linguistic system, metafunctions and cohesion in chapter two In chapter three, I will analyze the theme-rheme patterns and the main cohesive ties in the story.
Scope of the Study …
As a minor thesis, not all aspects of functional grammar are explored but only some of them such as linguistic system, metafunctions and cohesion The focus of the study, however, does not lie in the theoretical findings but hopefully, on this fundamental theory, will enlighten the text analysis
With a view to analyzing theme-rheme and cohesive ties of an English text, descriptive and analytical methods are used The former is concerned with the description of the main areas of functional grammar and the latter deals with the analysis of the text for discussion
The text is taken from one of the most famous short stories by O‟Henry “The Last Leaf” in his collection “The Trimmed Lamp and Other Stories” which was first published by Philips & Co in 1907 in New York
This thesis is divided into four chapters as follows:
Chapter one – Introduction – presents the rationale of the study, the aims of the study, scope of the study, methods of the study, data collection, and the research design
Chapter two – Theoretical Background – supplies some fundamental and theoretical concepts for the study: linguistic system, metafunctions and cohesion analysis
Chapter three – The Analysis of the short story “The Last Leaf” by O’Henry focuses on its thematic structure and cohesive ties
Chapter four – Conclusion – summarizes the results of the study and offers some suggestions for teaching and learning as well as for further studies.
Data Collection
The text is taken from one of the most famous short stories by O‟Henry “The Last Leaf” in his collection “The Trimmed Lamp and Other Stories” which was first published by Philips & Co in 1907 in New York.
Design of the Study
This thesis is divided into four chapters as follows:
Chapter one – Introduction – presents the rationale of the study, the aims of the study, scope of the study, methods of the study, data collection, and the research design
Chapter two – Theoretical Background – supplies some fundamental and theoretical concepts for the study: linguistic system, metafunctions and cohesion analysis
Chapter three – The Analysis of the short story “The Last Leaf” by O’Henry focuses on its thematic structure and cohesive ties
Chapter four – Conclusion – summarizes the results of the study and offers some suggestions for teaching and learning as well as for further studies.
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND …
Introduction
This chapter will explore some basic concepts that are considered to set the theoretical orientation for the study: the linguistic system, metafunctions and cohesion Examples are taken from grammar books by such famous linguists as Halliday (1985, 1994), Halliday and Hasan (1976), Geoff Thomson (1996), Hoàng Văn Vân (2002, 2005 &
2006), and other researchers like Đỗ Tuấn Minh (2006), etc.
The Linguistic System
Language is viewed as systems of meaning potential in human interaction that are realized by various structures formed in certain contexts which are studied under register In systemic grammar, register is conceptualized in terms of three parameters: field, tenor and mode
- Field of discourse refers to what is happening, to the nature of the social action that is taking place: what is it that the participants are engaged in, in which the language figures as some essential components?
- Tenor of discourse refers to who is taking part, to the nature of the participants, their statuses and roles: what kind of role relationships of one kind or another, both the types of speech role that they are taking on in the dialogue and the whole cluster of socially significant relationships in which they are involved?
- Mode of discourse refers to what part the language is playing, what it is that the participants are expecting the language to do for them in that situation: the symbolic organization of the text, the status that it has, and its function in the context, including the channel (is it spoken or written or some combination of the two?) and also the rhetorical mode, what is being achieved by the text in terms of such categories as persuasive, expository, didactic and the like
These three contextual variables are deemed to be the only aspects of the context of situation of a text that are linguistically relevant to accomplish a particular social goal
It will be embedded in the text by being realized in the semantic and grammatical structures of the text.
Metafunctions
From the sociological point of view, Halliday (1970, 1985) developed a theory of the fundamental functions of language into three broad metafunctions: ideational, interpersonal and textual Each functional component corresponds to each parameter register as the working hypothesis: field - ideational; tenor - interpersonal; mode - textual The third one, textual metafunction, will receive more attention due to the purpose of this study
The ideational meta-function is concerned with the expression of content and “uses language to encode our experience of the world and to convey a picture of reality” (Butt et al., 1995: 13-14) It is an important aspect of most real situations because the organization of everyday activities depends on the accuracy of the expression and transfer of the right information in the right ways In other words, this function focuses on the transfer of information and how language is used to get things done, to produce a result in real-life terms Here lies the concept of System of Transitivity, that is, the representations we have of world are shown through the language and can be perceived by the verbal choices we make, the kinds of “processes” (including verbal , material, behavioural, mental, relational and existential ) chosen by the participants ( actor, goal; senser, phenomenon; carrier, attribute ; etc.) according to the circumstances
( cause, location, manner , etc.) they are involved with Below are some examples
The interpersonal metafunction is concerned with the interaction between the speaker and addressee(s) – the grammatical resources for enacting social roles in general, and speech roles in particular, in dialogue interaction The speaker is using language as the means of his own intrusion into the speech event: the expression of his comments, attitudes and evaluations, and also of the relationship that he sets up between himself and the listeners - in particular, the communication role that he adopts of informing, questioning, greeting, persuading, and the like (Halliday, 1994)
Mood and Residue, two components of a clause, are often used to express the interpersonal function The Mood shows what role the speaker selects in the speech situation and what role he assigns to the addressee The mood element makes the clause “negotiable” and in English it consists of Finite, Subject and Modal Adjunct(s)
The Finite makes a clause negotiable by coding it as positive or negative and by grounding it, either in terms of time or in terms of modality The Subject is the element by reference to which the proposition can be affirmed or denied (Halliday, 1994: 76)
Modal Adjuncts add meanings related to speaker‟s judgement or to the
The exhausted bushwalker dropped his pack
(Halliday, 1994: 74) which consists of three functional elements: Predicator, Complement and Adjunct Here are some illustrations:
Unfortunately the girl has already done it
Mood Residue Modal Adjunct Subject Finite Modal Adjunct
These flowers have just been given my aunt out of pity
Predicator Complement Adjunct Mood Residue
The textual metafunction is about the verbal world, especially the flow of information in a text, and is concerned with clauses as messages The textual metafunction acts to organize the flow of interpersonal and ideational meanings as they unfold in a text
The textual meta-function reflects the meanings according to the choices for placing the information in the sentences, that is, what he/she chooses to say/write first (Theme) The textual meaning is described through the system of Theme Thematic structure “gives the clause its character as a message” (Haliday, 1994: 37) and thus, creates „relevance‟ to the context
As a message structure, a clause consists of a Theme accompanied by a Rheme It is useful to make a distinction between Theme and Rheme The Theme serves as the point of departure of the message, which in English coincides with the initial element(s) of the clause and the Rheme is the part from which the Theme is developed Halliday (1994: 34) proposed a definition for Theme in the Systemic Functional model of discourse analysis where Theme is “what the message is concerned with: the point of departure for what the speaker is going to say”
According to Halliday (1994), it is the Theme Structure that supplies the clause with its characteristic of message (the other structures are: Transitivity – representation, and Mood – exchange) In other words, the clause is organized as message where one of its elements is called Theme and the other Rheme – the two parts together constitute a message The thematic organization of clauses is the most significant aspect for the development of a text By analyzing the thematic structure of a text, it is possible to observe its nature and understand how the writer exposed his concerns with the organization of the message
The Theme may be realized by a nominal group, a prepositional phrase, an adverbial group or even a clause in predicated theme The elements that go into the Theme are: the first experiential element in a clause (Participant/process/circumstance) and any element preceding the first experiencial element in the clause (modal/connective adjuncts, conjunctions, finite, vocative) The Theme may be single or multiple , marked or unmarked It is single when the thematic element is represented by just one constituent – a nominal group, an adverbial group, or a prepositional phrase On the contrary, it is multiple when more than one element occur together in a clause in the position of Theme
There exist three types of theme: topical theme, textual theme and interpersonal one
Topical theme is the one that is conflated with an experiential element of the clause; it may be participant, circumstance or process Textual theme shows the meaning relevant to the context, both the co-text and context of situation It can be (i) continuity adjuncts (continuatives) like “yes, no, well, now, etc.” (ii) structural adjuncts
(Structurals) like “and, or, either, then, so, but, suppose, given that, although, which, who, where, etc.” and (iii) conjunctive adjuncts (Conjunctives) such as “that is, in other words, briefly, actually, moreover, beside, as a result, in that case, despite, etc.”
Interpersonal theme indicates the kind of interaction between speakers or the positions which they are taking The most common interpersonal Theme in English is the Finite in interrogative clauses Others are modal adjuncts as “perhaps, always, usually, of course, surely, in my opinion, honestly, kindly, wisely, etc.” and vocatives
An unmarked theme is one that is usual or typical and it often conflates with the
Subject whereas a marked theme is one that is unusual In English, for instance, for a declarative clause the standard structure is where the Theme is the subject of the clause
But when the clause is organized differently, it presents a marked Theme, such as a conjunction According to Halliday (1994: 47), “the question which element of the clause is typically chosen as the Theme depends on the choice of Mood”
Table 1: Mood type and unmarked Theme selection (Halliday, 2004: 78)
Mood of clause Typical (“unmarked”) Theme declarative Nominal group functioning as Subject Interrogative: yes/no First word (finite operator) of verbal group plus nominal group functioning as Subject Interrogative :wh- Nominal group, adverbial group or prepositional phrase functioning as interrogative (Wh-) element Imperative: “you” Verbal group functioning as Predicator, plus preceding don’t if negative Imperative : “you and me”
Let’s plus preceding don’t if negative exclamative Nominal group or adverbial group functioning as exclamative
Followings are some examples to illustrate thematic structure:
Cohesion
The concept of cohesion in text is related to semantic ties or “relations of meanings that exist within the text, and that define it as a text” (Halliday and Hasan, 1976: 4) It occurs where the interpretation of some element in the discourse is dependent on that of another, the one presupposes the other
Actualization of cohesion depends on both selection of some option from systematic resources (reference, ellipsis, substitution, and conjunction) and the presence of some other elements (repetition, synonym, antonym, meronymy and collocation) which
I don’t believe that pudding ever will be cooked
Theme (unmarked) Rheme oh soldier, soldier, won’t you marry me
Theme (Marked) Rheme resolves the presupposition that this sets up We relatively refer to two types of cohesion: grammatical and lexical which will be explained in the following parts
In linguistics, grammar refers to the logical and structural rules that govern the composition of sentences, phrases, and words in any given natural language
Grammatical cohesion refers to the structural content of a text
According to Hoàng Văn Vân (2006: 66), reference expresses the relationship of identity which exists between units in discourse It can be divided into anaphoric, cataphoric, and exophoric Anaphoric reference refers to any reference that “points backwards” to previously mentioned information in the text Cataphoric reference refers to any reference that “points forward” to information that will be presented later in the text Exophoric reference refers to any reference within the same nominal group or phrase which follows the presupposed item For cohesion purposes, anaphoric reference is the most relevant as it “provides a link with a preceding portion of the text” (Halliday and Hasan 1976: 51); hence it is the most common usage For examples:
(4 a) Three blind mice, three blind mice See how they run! See how they run!
(4 b) I would never have believed it They‟ve accepted the whole scheme
(cataphoric reference) Functionally speaking, there are three main types of cohesive references: personal, demonstrative, and comparative Personal reference keeps track of function through the speech situation using noun pronouns like “he, him, she, her, etc.” and possessive determiners like “mine, yours, his, hers, etc.” Demonstrative reference keeps track of information through location using proximity references like “this, these, that, those, here, there, then, the” Comparative reference keeps track of identity and similarity through indirect references using adjectives like “same, equal, similar, different, else, better, more” etc and adverbs like “so, such, similarly, otherwise, so, more”, etc
(Halliday and Hasan, 1976: 37-39) For instance:
(5 a) Can you hand Mary a program Hers has got lost
(5 b) They broke a Chinese vase That is valuable
(5 c) I didn‟t expect John to beat Peter I never thought he was so strong
(comparative reference) 2.4.2.1.2 Substitution and ellipsis
Whereas referencing functions to link semantic meanings within text, substitution and ellipsis differs in that it operates as a linguistic link at the lexicogrammatical level In Bloor and Bloor (1995: 96), substitution and ellipsis are used when “a speaker or writer wishes to avoid the repetition of a lexical item and is able to draw on one of the grammatical resources of the language to replace the item” The three types of classification for substitution and ellipsis: nominal, verbal and causal, reflect its grammatical function When something in text is being substituted, it follows that the substituted item maintains the same structural function as the presupposed item
In nominal substitution, the most typical substitution words are “one” and “ones” and they substitute nouns Here is an illustration:
(6) These biscuits are stale – Get some fresh ones
In verbal Substitution, the most common substitute is the verb “do” and is sometimes used in conjunction with “so” as in “do so” and substitute verbs Halliday and Hasan (1976: 125-126) point out that “do” often operates with the reference items “it” and
“that” but still have the main function as a verbal substitute because of its grammatical role
(7) Has anyone fed the cat? – Somebody must have done
In clausal Substitution, an entire clause is substituted and though it may seem to be similar to either nominal or vebal substitution, the difference is the presupposed anaphoric reference The linguistic items used as substitutes are “so, not” For example:
(8) Has everyone gone home? – I hope not
Though substitution and ellipsis are similar in their function as the linguistic link for cohesion, ellipsis deffers in that it is “substitution by zero” (Halliday and Hasan, 1976:
Nominal Ellipsis occurs within nominal group It is the ellipsis of a Head with optional modification (premodifier / postmodifier) For example:
(9) Four other Oysters followed them and yet another four (Oysters)
Verbal Ellipsis appears within verbal group An elliptical group presupposes one or more words from a previous verbal group For example:
(10) Have you been swimming? – Yes, I have (been swimming)
Clausal Ellipsis takes clause as the point of departure It relates to the question and answer in a dialogue There may exist Yes / No Ellipsis or Wh – Ellipsis For instance:
(11) Is he at home? – Yes (He is at home.)
Another type of cohesion is conjunction that “constitutes a cohesive bond between two clauses” (Halliday, 1994: 180) Cohesive conjunction is the logical-semantic organization of propositions within a discourse It allows the speaker/ writer to set up relationships between ideas It is viewed in different ways, however, in this thesis; I would like to put an emphasis on Halliday‟s classification: Elaboration, Extension and Enhancement
In elaboration, “one clause elaborates on the meaning of another by further specifying or describing it” (Halliday, 1994: 225) A clause can be elaborated by apposition (in which some element is represented or restarted like “for example, in other words, to illustrate….) or by clarification (in which some element is summarized, reinstated, made more precise or clarified for purposes of discourse, for example, “actually, to sum up, at least, in particular, etc.)
In Halliday‟s view when “one clause extends the meaning of another by adding something new to it”, it is called extension It is displayed by (i) addition which consists of positive (and, moreover,…), negative (nor), adversative(but, yet, on the other hand, however…) and (ii) variation that is made up by replacive (on the contrary, instead), subtractive (apart from that, except for that), and alternative
Halliday (1994) also states that in enhancement, one clause enhances the meaning of another by “qualifying it in one of a number of possible ways” There are four elements that constitute enhancement: (i) spatio-temporal (then, next, before that, in the end, at once, soon, meanwhile, etc.); (ii) manner (similarly, in a different way, thus, by such means, etc.); (iii) causal-conditional (so, therefore, in consequence, as a result, for that purpose, though, nevertherless, etc); and (iv) matter (here, there, in that respect, in other respects, etc.)
2.4.2.2 Lexical Cohesion Lexical cohesion difers from the other cohesive elements in text in that it is non- grammatical Lexical cohesion refers to the “cohesive effect achieved by the selection of vocabulary” (Halliday and Hasan, 1976: 274) The two basic categories of lexical cohesion are reiteration and collocation
In this section, based on Hoang Van Van (2006: 81-83), I will provide an overview of reiteration: repetition, synonymy, antonymy, superordinate, meronymy and general word
Repetition refers to the same lexical item with the same meaning occuring more than one in the same discourse
(12) I thought it would surely fall during the night I heart the wind It will fall today and I shall die at the same time
Synonymy refers to the relation between different words bearing the same meaning or nearly the same meaning for a particular person, object, process or quality
(13) Accordingly… I took leave, and turned to the ascent of the peak The climb is perfectly easy…
Antonymy describes opposite or contrastive meaning between two word items
(14)He used to be thin Now, he is fat
The main idea of hyponymy is “inclusion”; that is, a lower term (hyponym) is included in an upper term (the superordinate)
(15)There are many kinds of fruit in the garden He likes apples and oranges the best
In the example above, “apples, oranges”‟ are hyponyms of “fruit” and “apples” and
Superordinate is known as co-occurence of the same or some higher level of generality Meronymy is where lexical items are in a “part-whole” relationship with each other Consequently, the relation between two parts is one of co-meronym
(16)Henry’s bought himself a new Jaguar He practically lives in the car
(17)The house is big He lives upstairs and she lives downstairs
In the examples above, “car” is superordinate of “Jaguar”; “upstairs, downstairs” are meronymy of “house”; “upstairs” and “downstairs” are co-meronymys
General word is known as a class of general nouns which have generalised reference within the major noun classes, such as “human nouns”: people, person, man, woman, boy; “object nouns”: thing, object; “place nouns”: place
(18)There’s a boy climbing that tree The idiot’s going to fall if he doesn’t take care
Collocation pertains to lexical items that are likely to be found together within the same text Collocation occurs when a pair of words is not necessarily dependent upon the same semantic relationship but rather they tend to occur within the same lexical environment (Halliday and Hasan, 1976) The closer lexical items are to each other between sentences, the stronger the cohesive effect.
Concluding Remarks
In this chapter, some fundamental concepts relevant to the purpose of the study have been discussed They are field, tenor and mode that make up the contextual system and also three functions of language that serve to express three largely independent sets of semantic choice: (i) the transitivity pattern shows representational meaning: what the clause is about, which is typically some process, with associated participants and circumstance; (ii) the mood pattern expresses interpersonal meaning: What the clause is doing as a verbal exchange between speaker / writer and audience/ reader; and (iii) the theme pattern represents the organization of the message: how the clause relates to the surrounding discourse, and to the context of situation in which it is being produced
Cohesion concepts and types are also taken into consideration in the study so as to provide a brief framework of systemic functional grammar for analysis The following chapter focuses on the analysis of theme-rheme and cohesive ties of the short story
“The Last Leaf” by O‟Henry based on the systemic functional approached mentioned before hand.
CHAPTER 3: THEME – RHEME AND COHESIVE TIES IN THE
THEME – RHEME AND COHESIVE TIES IN THE SHORT
STORY “THE LAST LEAF” BY O’HENRY
In this chapter, an effort is made to explore the thematic structure and cohesive ties of a short story as a text, using the concepts which have been explored in the previous chapter as the theoretical framework The analysis will be carried out from the context of the text chosen, the theme-rheme pattern to the grammatical and lexical cohesion analysis
3.2 The Context of the Chosen Text
The text is the short story “The Last Leaf” by O‟Henry published in 1907, in his collection “The Trimmed Lamp and Other Stories” Set in Greenwich Village, which was known in the late 19 th to mid 20 th centuries as an artists‟ haven, it depicts characters and themes typical of O‟Henry‟s works The author is O‟Henry, who is one of the greatest American short story writers This story is one of 381 short stories he wrote in New York Most of them were about the lives of the common people there
“The Last Leaf” is one of the most famous short stories of O‟Henry, appearing in the New York World Sunday Magazine The targeted readers, therefore, are firstly New Yorkers and then people all over the world
It is an English text and it carries its own features in meaning and structure
3.3 The Analysis of the text in terms of theme - rheme
The thematic organization of the clauses (and clause complexes, where relevant) is the most significant factor in the development of the text As mentioned in chapter 2, the theme is the starting point of the message A part of the meaning of any clause lies in which element is chosen as its Theme Examining the theme to find out the reason for that organization is hoped to reveal the ideological meaning underlying the text As can be seen in Appendix I, there are 270 clauses which make up 178 clause complexes in the text Of 250 clauses analyzed for theme, there exist all kinds of theme as pointed out by Halliday (1994): Topical theme, Textual theme and Interpersonal one
Because the Theme is the starting point from which experiences unfolded in a clause, it must include the whole of the first item in the experiential meanings Eggins (1994:
276) states that “When an element of the clause to which a Transititvity function can be assigned occurs in first position in a clause, we describe it as a topical theme” The topical theme consists of element(s) that represent a process , a participant in the process or a circumstance Looking at the table of the thematic analysis (see
Appendix II: The Theme – Rheme Pattern), we can see that topical themes in the text account for the highest percentage in which 212 are participants, 26 are circumstances and 12 processes For example,
Participant: Carrier Relational process Participant : Attribute Topical Theme (unmarked) Rheme
Participant: Goal Participant: Actor Material process Topical Theme (marked) Rheme
Circumstance: Manner Participant: Actor Material process Topical Theme (marked) Rheme
The most frequently used elements in the position of a topical theme are Johnsy, Sue and Behrman As can be seen in Appendix II (The Theme – Rheme pattern), Johnsy appears as the topical themes of 47 clauses (approximately 19%), Sue functions as the topical themes of 44 clauses (approximately 18%) and Behrman, ranks third with 25 clauses (about 10%) Short stories or novels aim to transfer “information” (author‟s thinking) mainly through charaters The writer focuses on developing the characters and from that the story unfolds It can be drawn from this analysis that the main characters of the story are Johnsy, Sue, and Behrman
Clause by clause, the development proceeds as follows:
From the first clause to the 11 th clause, of which there are 8 clauses analyzed for theme, the topical themes are mainly adverbs of place and nominal groups referring to places which are “In a little district west of Washington Square”, “The places”, “One street ”, “To quaint old Greenwich Village”, “At the top of a squatty, three-story brick” The author wanted to start the story with its setting: an old village in a little district west of Washington Square, where poor artists live From this setting, the readers wait for what will happen next
From the 12 th clause to 139 th clause, “Sue” and “Johnsy” are transferred into the dominant Theme In this portion of the text, obviously, the author wanted to focus on these two main characters Johnsy and Sue met by chance and became close friends
Johnsy was a girl painter who was dying of pneumonia She kept watching the ivy leaves fall outside the window and believed that when the last one fell she would die
Sue is a loving, kind-hearted, sympathetic artist paving her way to Art who is the best friend of Johnsy She felt very sorry about Johnsy‟s illness but still tried whatever to comfort and encourage and take care of her
From the 140 th clause to 154 th clause, the topical theme which appears mainly is “Old Behrman”, so “Behrman” now becomes the Theme In fact, this old artist is one of the three main characters and the hero of the story However, at the beginning of the story, the other two main characters appear instead of Old Behrman He doesn‟t turn up until the middle of the story Moreover, in this paragraph, he only appears as the theme of
10 clauses, which makes him unimportant in readers‟eyes In most cases, the thematic structure is not arranged at random; instead, there is usually some meanings behind it
O‟Henry‟s stories are perhaps best known for their surprise endings Here he wants to insure the surprise ending, heightens the impact we feel when we found this man suddenly and unexpectedly sacrifies himself for Johnsy
From here, “Sue” and “Johnsy” return to be the dominant theme As the “last” leaf staying on the tree, Johnsy realized that “It‟s a sin to want to die” and became optimistic that she was going to get well and make her dreams come true Eventually she recovered “Old Behrman” only becomes the theme again in clauses 242 and 244 where the readers are informed about his illness, and then at the end of the story from clause 257 where through Sue, the author tells us that Behrman painted the leaf when the last one on the ivy vine fell on the dreary and extremely cold night to restore the dying Johnsy‟s hope to live He appears to be the theme of only four clauses at the last paragraph of the story
- Mr Behrman died of pneumonia to-day in the hospital (Clause 257)
- He was ill only two days (Clause 258)
- His shoes and clothing were wet through and icy cold (Clause 260)
- He painted it there the night that the last leaf fell (Clause 269-270)
The two last themes are “Old Behrman” and “the last leaf” (Clause 269, 270) The story reaches its climax and ends there The writer holds back important information until the last moment The last image which remains in readers‟ mind for a long time is Old Behrman and his masterpiece: The Last Leaf The last leaf, also the theme of the story, speaks highly of the sincere lasting friendship just as the evergreen ivy leaf and the noble spirit – selfless sacrifice
CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION
This study is on the theme – rheme structure and cohesive ties of a short story from the systemic functional grammar perspective At this stage it is possible to recapitulate what the study has been concerned with and to what extent it has achieved the research objectives put forward at the beginning of the study
To carry out the study, I began by setting the foundation for this thesis in chapter 2, where systemic functional grammar was briefly reviewed in terms of context (containing field, tenor, and mode); metafunctions (including ideational metafunction relating to field; interpersonal metafunction to tenor and textual metafunction to mode); and cohesion (including grammatical cohesion (which is about structural content) and lexical one (that concerns with lexical ties between clauses in a text)
Then in chapter 3, the short story “The Last leaf” written by O‟Henry was analyzed in terms of theme and cohesion In terms of theme, of 270 clauses in the text, 250 clauses were analyzed for theme Through this analysis, it was found that there exist three kinds of theme in which topical themes are predominant in the whole text, followed by interpersonal and textual themes The most significant themes are “Johnsy”, and
“Sue”, which appear most frequently throughout the text and are obviously the two main characters of the story “Behrman”, the third main character, only turns up in a small number of clauses from the middle of the story, which makes the readers very surprised with the unexpected ending when he becomes the hero bringing the dying Johnsy‟s hope to live Marked and unmarked themes were also put into consideration
Most of them are unmarked themes while 27 are unmarked themes in the text Marked theme is presented by adverbs of time and place to create the setting for the story It was also noted that there is a kind of what Danes (1974: 7) calls “thematic progression” in the text, though this pattern is not always consistent This is the method of text development In terms of cohesion, I focused on the analysis of the grammatical cohesion and lexical cohesion of the text The results of analysis in this chapter prove that reference plays the most important part and together with conjunctive devices, substitution and ellipsis as grammatical cohesion and repetition, synonyms, meronyms and antonyms as lexical cohesion makes the text more cohesive, coherent and concise
From the analysis above, a conclusion may be drawn that systemic functional grammar is a paradigm whose primary concern is with the functions of structures and their constituents and with their meanings in context This approach provides us an analytic tool to look at the whole text and its characteristic features
This study is useful for teachers and learners in that they can orient themselves in language teaching and learning
Fully understanding the theme-rheme structure, learners of English can understand how the text is developed so that they will find it easy to develop their discourse, especially written discourse There are different options that enable them to focus on or highlight certain elements They can decide how to “stage” the information, where to start, so to speak, in presenting the message As a result, we had better introduce the learners the theme-rheme structure, English thematic organization before developing their reproductive skills – speaking and writing Once a language teacher shows learners how to properly arrange old and new information, the students have gained a powerful tool for managing the meanings of their writings
The theme – rheme structure presents the order of imformation in a message The theme is the element which is the point of departure of the message, it is that with which the clause is concerned So, the notion of theme can show students how to read effectively by paying attention to the first paragraph, the topic sentence of each paragraph and Theme of a clause
For the translator, knowing well the similarities and differences between the themes in two languages helps him or her convey ideas appropriately in translation In the translation class, learners should be encouraged to know how to change the themes of one language to those of the other competently to avoid unnaturalness and make them easy to understand by the target readers or listener The translator has to understand the thematic meaning in each clause so that his translation reflects correctly that type of meaning
Understanding cohesive ties is also very useful for the learner of English, especially in writing and speaking Cohesive ties bind different parts of the text together to make it cohesive Using cohesive ties effectively will help learners create semantic links within text between sentences and paragraph boundaries, so create a cohesive text
All in all, the full understanding of the theme – theme structure and cohesive ties is extremely useful not only to language teachers and learners but also to the translator
This study has centered on only the theme-rheme structure and cohesive ties of an English short story using some analytical instruments of functional framework
Therefore further research should be extended to cover the study on transitivity, mood, logico – semantic relation and other text types with a variety of genres such as novels, poems, fairy tales, conversations and so on of different languages It is also advisable to investigate the similarities and differences between Vietnamese texts and English ones using the same analytical instruments
1 Collins English Dictionary (1990) Sinclair J (Ed.) London: Harper Collins
2 Butt, D., Fahey, R., Spinks, S., Yallop, C (1995) Using Functional Grammar: An explorer’s Guide Sydney: National Centre for English Language Teaching and
3 Eggins, S (1994) Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics.Wellington:
4 Halliday, M.A.K (1994) An Introduction to Functional Grammar Second Edition,
5 Halliday, M.A.K & Hasan, R (1985) Language, Context and Text: Aspect of
Language in Social – Semiotic Perspective Geelong, Victoria: Deakin
6 Halliday, M.A.K & Hasan, R (1976) Cohesion in English London: Longman
7 Halliday, M.A.K., Language as Social Semiotic: the Interpretation of Language and
8 Hasan, R., Coherence and Cohesive Harmony (In) Fllod, J (Ed) (1984)
Understanding Reading Comprehension: Cognition, Language and the Structure of Prose
9 Đỗ Tuấn Minh (2007) Themantic Structure in Vietnamese Unpublished PHD
Thesis Department of Post graduate studies, ULIS
10 Nunan, D (1993) Introducing Discourse Analysis London: Penguin
11 Thomson, G (1996) Introducing Functional Grammar Oxford: Oxford
12 Hoàng Văn Vân (2002) Ngữ pháp kinh nghiệm của cú Tiếng Việt: Mô tả theo quan điểm chức năng hệ thống Hanoi: NXB KHXH
13 Hoàng Văn Vân (2006) Introducing Discourse Analysis Hanoi: NXB Giáo dục
14 Hoàng Văn Vân (2009) Về phạm trù chủ ngữ Tạp chí Ngôn Ngữ số 8 Hanoi:
I (1) In a little district west of Washington Square the streets have run crazy and broken themselves into small strips
II (3) These "places" make strange angles and curves III (4) One Street crosses itself a time or two
IV (5) An artist once discovered a valuable possibility in this street
(6) Suppose a collector with a bill for paints, paper and canvas should, in traversing this route, suddenly meet himself coming back, without a cent
(7) having been paid on account!
VI (8) So, to quaint old Greenwich Village the art people soon came prowling, hunting for north windows and eighteenth-century gables and Dutch attics and low rents
(9) Then they imported some pewter mugs and a chafing dish or two from Sixth Avenue,
(11) At the top of a squatty, three-story brick Sue and Johnsy had their studio
IX (12) "Johnsy" was familiar for Joanna
XI (15) They had met at the table d'hôte of an Eighth Street
(16) and found their tastes in art, chicory salad and bishop sleeves so congenial that the joint studio resulted
XII (17) That was in May
In November a cold, unseen stranger, whom the doctors called Pneumonia, stalked about the colony, touching one here and there with his icy fingers
(19) whom the doctors called Pneumonia, XIV (20) Over on the east side this ravager strode boldly, smiting his victims by scores‟,
(21) but his feet trod slowly through the maze of the narrow and moss-grown "places."
(23) what you would call a chivalric old gentleman
XVI (24) A mite of a little woman with blood thinned by California zephyrs was hardly fair game for the red-fisted, short-breathed old duffer
XVII (25) But Johnsy he smote;
(26) and she lay, scarcely moving, on her painted iron bedstead, looking through the small Dutch window-panes at the blank side of the next brick house
XVIII (27) One morning the busy doctor invited Sue into the hallway with a shaggy, gray eyebrow
(28) "She has one chance in - let us say, ten,",
(31) as he shook down the mercury in his clinical thermometer
XX (32) "And that chance is for her to want to live
XXI (33) This way people have of lining-u on the side of the undertaker makes the entire pharmacopoeia look silly
XXII (34) Your little lady has made up her mind
(35) that she's not going to get well
XXIII (36) Has she anything on her mind?"
(37) "She - she wanted to paint the Bay of Naples some day."
XXV (39) "Paint? - XXVI (40) bosh! Has she anything on her mind worth thinking twice - a man for instance?"
(42) said Sue, with a jew's-harp twang in her voice
XXVIII (43) "Is a man worth XXIX (44) but, no, doctor; there is nothing of the kind."
(45) "Well, it is the weakness, then,"
XXXI (47) "I will do all that science, so far as it may filter through my efforts, can accomplish
(48) But whenever my patient begins to count the carriages in her funeral procession
(49) I subtract 50 per cent from the curative power of medicines
XXXIII (50) If you will get her to ask one question about the new winter styles in cloak sleeves
(51) I will promise you a one-in-five chance for her, instead of one in ten."
XXXIV (52) After the doctor had gone
(53) Sue went into the workroom and cried a Japanese napkin to a pulp
XXXV (54) Then she swaggered into Johnsy's room with her drawing board, whistling ragtime
XXXVI (55) Johnsy lay, scarcely making a ripple under the bedclothes, with her face toward the window XXXVII (56) Sue stopped whistling, thinking
(59) and began a pen-and-ink drawing to illustrate a magazine story
(60) Young artists must pave their way to Art by drawing pictures for magazine stories
(61) that young authors write to pave their way to Literature
(62) As Sue was sketching a pair of elegant horseshow riding trousers and a monocle of the figure of the hero, an Idaho cowboy,
(63) she heard a low sound, several times repeated
XLI (64) She went quickly to the bedside
(65) Johnsy's eyes were open wide
XLIII (66) She was looking out the window and counting - counting backward
XLIV (67) "Twelve," she said, and little later "eleven"; and then "ten," and
"nine"; and then "eight" and "seven", almost together
XLV (69) Sue look solicitously out of the window XLVI (70) What was there to count?
(71) There was only a bare, dreary yard to be seen, and the blank side of the brick house twenty feet away
(72) An old, old ivy vine, gnarled and decayed at the roots, climbed half way up the brick wall
XLIX (73) The cold breath of autumn had stricken its leaves from the vine
(74) until its skeleton branches clung, almost bare, to the crumbling bricks
(78) said Johnsy, in almost a whisper
LII (79) "They're falling faster now LIII (80) Three days ago there were almost a hundred
LVI (83) There goes another one
LVII (84) There are only five left now."
LXI (88) On the ivy vine
(89) When the last one falls
(91) I've known that for three days
LXIV (92) Didn't the doctor tell you?"
(93) "Oh, I never heard of such nonsense,"
(94) complained Sue, with magnificent scorn
(95) "What have old ivy leaves to do with your getting well?
LXVII (96) And you used to love that vine so, you naughty girl
(98) Why, the doctor told me this morning
(99) that your chances for getting well real soon were LXX (100) let's see exactly what he said
LXXI (101) he said the chances were ten to one!
(102) Why, that's almost as good a chance as we have in New York
(103) when we ride on the street cars or walk past a new building
(104) Try to take some broth now,
(105) and let Sudie go back to her drawing,
(106) so she can sell the editor man with it,
(107) and buy port wine for her sick child, and pork chops for her greedy self."
(108) "You needn't get any more wine,"
(109) said Johnsy, keeping her eyes fixed out the window
LXXVI (111) No, I don't want any broth
LXXVII (112) That leaves just four
(113) I want to see the last one fall
LXXIX (115) Then I'll go, too."
LXXX (116) "Johnsy, dear," "will you promise me to keep your eyes closed, and not look out the window
(118) said Sue, bending over her, LXXXI (119) I must hand those drawings in by to-morrow
(121) or I would draw the shade down."
(122) "Couldn't you draw in the other room?"
LXXXIV (124) "I'd rather be here by you,"
LXXXV (126) "Beside, I don't want you to keep looking at those silly ivy leaves."
LXXXVI (127) "Tell me as soon as you have finished,"
(128) said Johnsy, closing her eyes, and lying white and still as fallen statue,
(129) "because I want to see the last one fall
LXXXIX (133) and go sailing down, down, just like one of those poor, tired leaves."
XCI (136) "I must call Behrman up to be my model for the old hermit miner
XCII (137) I'll not be gone a minute
XCIV 140 Old Behrman was a painter
141 who lived on the ground floor beneath them
XCV 142 He was past sixty and had a Michael Angelo's Moses beard curling down from the head of a satyr along with the body of an imp
XCVI 143 Behrman was a failure in art
XCVII 144 Forty years he had wielded the brush without getting near enough to touch the hem of his Mistress's robe
XCVIII 145 He had been always about to paint a masterpiece,
146 but had never yet begun it
IC 147 For several years he had painted nothing except now and then a daub in the line of commerce or advertising
C 148 He earned a little by serving as a model to those young artists in the colony
149 who could not pay the price of a professional
CI 150 He drank gin to excess,
151 and still talked of his coming masterpiece
152 For the rest he was a fierce little old man,
153 who scoffed terribly at softness in any one,
154 and who regarded himself as especial mastiff-in-waiting to protect the two young artists in the studio above
CIII 155 Sue found Behrman smelling strongly of juniper berries in his dimly lighted den below
CIV 156 In one corner was a blank canvas on an easel
157 that had been waiting there for twenty-five years to receive the first line of the masterpiece
158 She told him of Johnsy's fancy,
159 and how she feared she would, indeed, light and fragile as a leaf herself, float away,
160 when her slight hold upon the world grew weaker
CVI 161 Old Behrman, with his red eyes plainly streaming, shouted his contempt and derision for such idiotic imaginings
163 "Is dere people in de world mit der foolishness to die
164 because leafs dey drop off from a confounded vine?
CIX 165 I haf not heard of such a thing
CX 166 No, I will not bose as a model for your fool hermit-dunderhead
CXI 167 Vy do you allow dot silly pusiness to come in der brain of her?
CXII 168 Ach, dot poor leetle Miss Yohnsy."
169 "She is very ill and weak,"
171 "and the fever has left her mind morbid and full of strange fancies
172 Very well, Mr Behrman, if you do not care to pose for me,
175 you are a horrid old - old flibbertigibbet."
CXVI 176 "You are just like a woman!"
CXVII 178 "Who said I will not bose?
CXXI 182 Gott! dis is not any blace in which one so goot as Miss Yohnsy shall lie sick
183 Some day I vill baint a masterpiece,
184 and ve shall all go away
CXXIII 185 Johnsy was sleeping when they went upstairs
CXXIV 186 Sue pulled the shade down to the window-sill,
187 and motioned Behrman into the other room
CXXV 188 In there they peered out the window fearfully at the ivy vine
CXXVI 189 Then they looked at each other for a moment without speaking
CXXVII 190 A persistent, cold rain was falling, mingled with snow
CXXVIII 191 Behrman, in his old blue shirt, took his seat as the hermit miner on an upturned kettle for a rock
192 When Sue awoke from an hour's sleep the next morning
193 she found Johnsy with dull, wide-open eyes staring at the drawn green shade
CXXXII 198 But, lo! after the beating rain and fierce gusts of wind that had endured through the livelong night, there yet stood out against the brick wall one ivy leaf
CXXXIII 199 It was the last one on the vine
CXXXIV 200 Still dark green near its stem, with its serrated edges tinted with the yellow of dissolution and decay, it hung bravely from the branch some twenty feet above the ground
201 "It is the last one,"
204 it would surely fall during the night
CXXXVIII 206 It will fall to-day,
207 and I shall die at the same time."
208 said Sue, leaning her worn face down to the pillow,
210 if you won't think of yourself
CXLI 212 But Johnsy did not answer
CXLII 213 The lonesomest thing in all the world is a soul when it is making ready to go on its mysterious, far journey
CXLIII 214 The fancy seemed to possess her more strongly
215 as one by one the ties that bound her to friendship and to earth were loosed
217 and even through the twilight they could see the lone ivy leaf clinging to its stem against the wall
218 And then, with the coming of the night the north wind was again loosed,
219 while the rain still beat against the windows and pattered down from the low Dutch eaves
220 When it was light enough
221 Johnsy, the merciless, commanded that the shade be raised
CXLVII 222 The ivy leaf was still there
CXLVIII 223 Johnsy lay for a long time looking at it
224 And then she called to Sue,
225 who was stirring her chicken broth over the gas stove
CL 226 "I've been a bad girl, Sudie,"
CLI 228 "Something has made that last leaf stay there to show me how wicked I was
CLIII 230 You may bring me a little broth now, and some milk with a little port in it,
231 and - no; bring me a hand-mirror first,
232 and then pack some pillows about me,
233 and I will sit up and watch you cook."
CLIV 234 And hour later she said:
CLV 235 "Sudie, some day I hope to paint the Bay of Naples."
236 The doctor came in the afternoon,
237 and Sue had an excuse to go into the hallway as he left
239 said the doctor, taking Sue's thin, shaking hand in his
CLVIII 240 "With good nursing you'll win."
CLIX 241 And now I must see another case I have downstairs
CLX 242 Behrman, his name is - some kind of an artist, I believe
CLXII 244 He is an old, weak man,
245 and the attack is acute
CLXIII 246 There is no hope for him;
247 but he goes to the hospital to-day to be made more comfortable."
CLXIV 248 The next day the doctor said to Sue:
CLXVI 251 Nutrition and care now - that's all."
CLXVII 252 And that afternoon Sue came to the bed
253 where Johnsy lay, contentedly knitting a very blue and very useless woollen shoulder scarf,
254 and put one arm around her, pillows and all
255 "I have something to tell you, white mouse,"
CLXIX 257 "Mr Behrman died of pneumonia to-day in the hospital
CLXX 258 He was ill only two days
CLXXI 259 The janitor found him the morning of the first day in his room downstairs helpless with pain
CLXXII 260 His shoes and clothing were wet through and icy cold
262 where he had been on such a dreadful night
263 And then they found a lantern, still lighted, and a ladder that had been dragged from its place, and some scattered brushes, and a palette with green and yellow colors mixed on it,
264 and - look out the window, dear, at the last ivy leaf on the wall
266 why it never fluttered or moved
CLXXVI 268 Ah, darling, it's Behrman's masterpiece CLXXVII 269 - he painted it there the night
CLXXVIII 270 that the last leaf fell."
Theme Topical Theme Markedness of Theme
I (1) In a little district west of
VI (8) So To quaint old
(11) At the top of a aquatty, three-story brick marked
XIV (20) Over on the east side marked
XVI (24) A mite of a little woman unmarked
XX (32) And That chance unmarked
XXII (34) Your little lady unmarked
XXIX (44) but doctor There unmarked
(72) An old, old ivy vine unmarked
XLIX (73) The cold breath of autumn unmarked
(74) until Its skeleton branches unmarked
LIII (80) Three days ago marked
(89) when The last one unmarked
LXIV (92) Didn‟t The doctor unmarked
IC 147 For several years marked
CIV 156 In one corner marked
160 When Her slight hold upon the world unmarked
CXX 181 For half an hour marked
CXXVII 190 A persistent, cold rain unmarked
CXXXII 198 but After the beating rain and fierce gust of wind marked
CXXXIV 200 Still dark green near its stem, with its serrated edges tinted with the yellow of dissolution and decay marked
CXLII 213 The lonesomest thing in all the world unmarked
215 As one by one The ties unmarked
217 and Through the twilling marked
218 And then With the coming of the night marked
CXLVII 222 The ivy leaf unmarked
CXLIX 224 And then She unmarked
CLIV 234 and Hour later marked
CLV 235 Sudie Some day marked
CLVIII 240 With good nursing marked
CLXIV 248 The next day marked
CLXVI 251 Nutrition and care unmarked
CLXXII 260 His shoe and clothing unmarked
CLXXIV 263 And then They unmarked
CLXXVI 268 Ah, darling It unmarked
In a little district west of Washington Square the streets have run crazy and broken themselves into small strips called "places." These "places" make strange angles and curves One Street crosses itself a time or two An artist once discovered a valuable possibility in this street
Suppose a collector with a bill for paints, paper and canvas should, in traversing this route, suddenly meet himself coming back, without a cent having been paid on account!