A Contrastive Study On Thematic Structure Between English And Chinese

Thematic structure has always been a hot issue.The gradual perfection of the theory and the contrastive studies of languages on that are correlated and promoted mutually.The study takes the definition and markedness of theme by Halliday and Matthiessen(2014),enhanced theory by Huang and Fawcett(1995)and secondary theme by Dabir-Moghaddam(2009)as the theoretical basis and utilizes the comparative research method to investigate the theme realization and markedness of theme in forms of simple theme,multiple theme,sentential theme,new categories(New categories refer to complex theme,appositive and secondary theme here.)and enhanced theme.What is more,the paper also involves the analyses of thematization process and the reasons causing similarities and differences of thematic structure in English and Chinese.During the analysis,it combines the word class and function to proceed with the contrast,and it also identifies and explains the thematic structure variants in new categories from syntactic and semantic level.There are four main conclusions in the paper.Firstly,concerning the syntax,the word class to realize topical theme in Chinese is more varied compared with that in English.There are variants in forms of topical theme,new categories of theme,multiple theme and enhanced theme in Chinese.Secondary theme widely exists in Chinese,while it does not appear in English.Secondly,in relation to markedness,subject in English declarative sentence is the only one unmarked theme.But the unmarked theme in Chinese can be realized by subject,object,complement following copular verb and predicate.The marked theme is realized by those with complex form like “X+NP”(X refers to conjunction),or placed at the end of sentences.The markedness of sentential theme in English distinguishes from that in Chinese in line with interdependency and logico-semantic relation.Thirdly,thematization processes are more varied in English than those in Chinese.Variety of word class to realize topical theme and variants of topical theme are in negative relation with the variety of thematization process to some degree.Fourthly,the differences on thematic structure between English and Chinese are triggered by the different tensions between meta-functions,the level of grammaticalization and different emphasis on structure or context.The findings of the study will facilitate the perfection of thematic structure and deepen the understanding of English and Chinese.The contrast study will be beneficial for translations between English and Chinese to achieve the equivalence on structure and function.