Elementos de comparación

This section focuses on the thematic choices chosen by the map task’s interlocutors in order to identify the ratio of the use of the marked and the unmarked Themes. It also examines the reasons for choosing marked Theme as the point of departure of the clause message. So the first research question that is to be examined in relation to the textual role of marked Theme in the map task dialogue is: how does marked Theme function as a device for structuring the map task interaction? So, in terms of word order, what is the effect of making a Circumstantial Adjunct or a Complement thematic in the map task interaction? In other words, how does making the point of departure of the clause message from an unusual angle contribute to structuring the map task dialogue?

This research question is explored in terms of marked Theme’s function of signalling that the perspective being developed in the clause or the starting point of the clause message is approached from an unusual angle (ibid) and whether this is necessary for the structuring the discourse of the map task. As noted in 2.3.1, p. 29, the starting point of the clause message is marked by the topical Theme (i.e. the first experiential element within the clause which is a Circumstantial Adjunct or a Complement in case of the marked Theme) as it is the thematic element. So, the textual and/or interpersonal Themes that occur before the marked topical Themes used in the map task interaction are not

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considered in the analysis of the point of departure of the clause because these elements are not experiential. So, they do not have the potential of realising the thematic role as explained in 2.3.1, p. 29, on the thematic structure of the simple Theme, containing only the topical element, and multiple Theme, containing textual and or interpersonal Themes plus the topical element.

As explained in Chapter Four above, the orthographic data of the map task of the 14 groups in which map task dialogues were collected from was examined to identify the use of the marked Themes in these dialogues and 59 marked Themes were used in 12 groups out of the 14 groups with the speaker’s role identified for each marked Theme. As Appendix J shows, the 59 marked Themes are all Adjuncts and none is realised by a Complement. Therefore, mainly with relation to the degree of markedness, nothing can be said in the current study about whether it makes a difference to the textual role of the marked Theme in the map task interaction if it is realised by a Circumstantial Adjunct or a Complement as a Complement is more marked than a Circumstantial Adjunct. In other words, a Complement is very rare to be made thematic (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2014) as noted in 2.3, p. 214. Table 5.1 shows the distribution of use of the marked Theme by the instruction givers and instruction receivers across the 12 groups.

Table 5.1 The use of the marked Theme in the 12 groups of the map task in terms of the speaker’s role Group No. Speaker’s role Use of marked Theme Group No. Speaker’s role Use of marked Theme

One IG1 3 Seven IG7 4

IR1 0 IR7 3

Two IG2 6 Eight IG8 1

IR2 2 IR8 0

Three IG3 2 Nine IG9 2

IG3 2 IR9 2

Four IG4 3 Ten IG10 1

IR4 2 IR10 3

Five IG5 2 Eleven IG11 4

IR5 7 IR11 2

Six IG6 2 Twelve IG12 2

IR6 1 IR12 3 12 groups 24 participants 59 marked Themes

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Table 5.1 shows that the instruction givers in groups one and eight do not use marked Theme. So, the marked Themes used in the 12 groups are produced by 12 instruction givers and 10 instruction receivers. The 12 instruction givers produce 32 marked Themes whereas the 10 instruction receivers 27 out of the overall 59 marked Themes as Table 5.3 below shows. So the instruction givers and the instruction receivers do not differ in the use of marked Theme taking into account that the instruction givers are 12 whereas the instruction receivers 10.

Then the use of the marked Theme was examined to identify the ratio of its use with relation to the unmarked Theme in the 12 groups. Table 5.2 below illustrates the use of the marked and the unmarked Theme:

Table 5.2 Thematic choice across the 14 map task dialogues

Unmarked Theme 2044 97.2%

Marked Theme 59 2.8%

Total 2103 100%

The results unsurprisingly show that marked Theme is highly unusual; it accounted for 59 occurrences (2.8%) out of the 2103 overall thematic choices whereas unmarked Theme accounted for 2044 occurrences (97.2%) as it is the usual thematic choice. The low occurrence of marked Theme in the map task dialogues is in line with Halliday’s (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2014) and Thompson’s (2014) views that marked Theme does not occur unless there is a good reason for making an element, a Complement or an Adjunct, other than the Subject the Theme of the clause such as to organise the clause as a message (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2014) or to better organise the text (Thompson, 2014). In order to reveal the reasons of the use of the 59 marked Theme in the map task dialogues and if their use is related to the speaker’s role, each marked Theme instance is examined in context of occurrence and sorted into 6 proposed marked Theme functions shown in Table 5.3 below with relation to their frequency of occurrence and the speaker’s role use. The definition of each of these functions and example of their occurrence in the map task dialogue are provided below. In Appendix M, the 59 marked Themes are glossed with relation to the 6 proposed functions and the number next to the marked Theme

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instance refers to the line of the occurrence of the marked Theme in the data script that is attached in Appendix K as noted above.

Table 5.3 Distributions of the 6 proposed functions of the 59 marked Themes and the function use by the 12 instruction givers and 10 instruction receivers.

Function symbol Marked Theme 6 proposed functions IGs use IRs

use Total Percentage A Reintroducing information to

introduce new landmarks 5 10 15 25.4%

B

Reintroducing information to introduce new details about the route layout

7 2 9 15.2%

C Reintroducing information to check

the availability of landmarks 4 0 4 6.7%

D Reintroducing information to repair

meaning 4 4 8 13.5%

E Reintroducing information to check

understanding 0 3 3 5.0%

F Reintroducing information to

refocus on it 12 8 20 33.8%

Overall 32 27 59 100%

Table 5.3 shows that out of the overall 59 marked Theme instances, 15 (25.4%) instances denote Function A, ‘reintroducing information to introduce new landmarks’, 9 (15.2%) instances denote Function B, ‘reintroducing information to introduce new details about the route layout’, 4 (6.7%) instances denote Function C, ‘reintroducing information to check the availability of landmarks’, 8 (13.5%) instances were found performing Function D, ‘reintroducing information to repair meaning’, 3 (5.0%) instances denote Function E, ‘reintroducing information to check understanding’ and 20 (33.8%) instances denote Function F, ‘reintroducing information to refocus on it’.

The frequency of use of the six proposed functions of the marked Theme differs with relation to the speaker’s role as Table 5.3 shows, the instruction giver’s and the instruction receiver’s roles20. Function A, ‘reintroducing information to introduce new landmarks’ is used by the instruction receivers more than instruction givers with 10 and 5 instances respectively out of the overall 15 uses. Function B, ‘reintroducing information to

20 _{The distribution of the marked Theme functions was not assessed for accuracy by Chi square test}

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introduce new details about the route layout’ is used by the instruction givers more than the instruction receivers with 7 and 2 instances out of 9 uses respectively. Function C, ‘reintroducing information to check the availability of a landmark’ is only used by the instruction givers with 4 uses whereas Function E, ‘reintroducing information to check understanding’ is only used by the instruction receivers with 3 uses. Function D, ‘reintroducing information to repair meaning’ is equally used by the instruction givers and the instruction receivers with 4 instances for each out of the overall 8 occurrences. Function F, ‘reintroducing information to refocus on it’ is used more by the instruction givers than the instruction receivers with 12 and 8 uses respectively out of the overall 20 instances.

To illustrate how the above 6 proposed functions of the marked Theme are categorised, they are defined below with relation to the meanings denoted by the 59 marked Themes in context of occurrence and discussed with relation to the instruction giver’s and the instruction receiver’s roles. In text examples from the map task dialogues on the 6 proposed functions of the marked Theme are provided for each function to better enlighten the meaning of the marked Theme and show how the above 6 functions of marked Theme are arrived at. The definitions and examples will show how the functions are different, whether there are cases where the marked Theme fitted into more than one function and whether there is a relation between the function of the marked Theme and the speaker’s role. In the examples cited from the map task dialogues on the 6 proposed functions of the marked Theme, the whole marked Theme is underlined and the marked topical element, the point of departure of the message within the marked Theme is emboldened to easily locate it in the extract and not to confuse it with other marked Themes as some of the extracts contain more than one marked Theme. To easily locate the extracts of the examples presented in this section in the master data script attached in Appendix K, the numbering of the turns in the extracts and of the marked Theme utterances are kept the same. In the examples, IG and IR stand for the instruction giver and the instruction receiver, followed by the group number e.g. IG1, IR1; IG2, IR2; etc. For ease of reference to the instruction giver and the instruction receiver, the short forms IG and IR are used when explaining the in text examples. The in text examples to be presented to illustrate the 6 proposed functions of the marked Theme are representative of the other marked Themes used in the map task dialogues. Yet, as noted above, the 59 marked Themes are described with relation to the 6 proposed functions in Appendix M

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and they are numbered according to their occurrence in the data script to easily locate them.

Function A, Reintroducing information to introduce new landmarks

Function A, ‘reintroducing information to introduce new landmarks’ refers to describing the location of new landmarks that are not previously mentioned in the discourse and their location is not yet agreed on by the instruction giver and the instruction receiver through using shared information, that is agreed on by both the instruction giver and the instruction receiver, as a reference point to easily and effectively describe the location of the new landmarks. The shared information is reintroduced in the discourse in a marked Theme structure; it is taken as a point of departure of the clause message due to its importance to more easily guide the hearer to the location of the new landmarks. In this function, the speaker does not know whether the landmarks that s/he introduces is shared or not between the two maps. So, Function A ‘reintroducing information to introduce new landmarks’ is different from Function F, ‘reintroducing information to refocusing on it’ to be explained below in which the speaker knows that the landmark that s/he is going to describe with relation to the reintroduced information is not found in the other map. Example 5.1 below from the dialogue of group six illustrates Function A, ‘reintroducing information to introduce new landmarks’. The other marked Theme instances denoting Function A are described in Appendix M and indicated by the Function’s symbol ‘A’. The full data script of the dialogue of group six is presented in Appendix K.

Example 5.1

897) IG6: ok and then it curves slightly up and to the left until it’s pretty much below like the old mine and almost near the starting point

898) IR6: alright ok so yeah so near the swamp 899) IG6: yeah

900) IR6: ok I’ve done that

901) IG6: um and then sor… sort of below that there is the forest 902) IR6: oh I got a cottage beneath that

903) IG6: may be the cottage is in the forest 904) IR6: maybe <unclear words>

905) IG6: um (laugh) so then the line continues like around the forest and the cottage

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In Example 5.1 above, IG6 describes the route line that is near the ‘starting point’ and below the ‘old mine’ (line 897). IR6 is able to follow IG6 because the ‘starting point’ and ‘old mine’ are shared between the two maps. So IR6 confirms that she follows the instructions through drawing the line (line 900) and responding that the location is near another landmark, ‘swamp’ (line 899). IG6 confirms that IR6 is right (line 899). So, IG6 and IR6 realise that ‘starting point’, ‘old mine’ and the ‘swamp’ are shared. Therefore, IG6 continues route description and gives further directions from the last point, ‘swamp’, they arrived at (line 901). IG6 takes the location of the ‘swamp’ as a point of departure of her clause to introduce a new landmark ‘forest’. In other words, IG6 approaches the clause message from the location of the shared landmark ‘swamp’ to easily describe to IR6 the location of the ‘forest’ with relation to the location of the ‘swamp’. ‘Swamp’ is reintroduced using the anaphoric expression ‘that’. In other words, being a shared landmark, ‘swamp functions as a good reference point for IG6 to confidently give further details on the route. So, IG6 has chosen to foreground (thematise) ‘swamp’ and reintroducing it in a marked Theme.

15 marked Themes out of the 59 denote Function A, ‘reintroducing information to introduce new landmarks’ and it is used both by the instruction givers and the instruction receivers as Table 5.3 above shows. The interaction of the map task depends mainly on the interlocutors’ shared description of the locations of the landmarks and this explains the use of Function A and makes it typical in the map task interaction compared to the other functions. It comes second after Function F described below, ‘reintroducing information to refocus on it’ in the frequency of use, Table 5.3 above. The instruction receivers use Function A, ‘reintroducing information to introduce new landmarks’ more than the instruction givers do with 10 and 5 uses out of the overall 15 uses respectively. The difference in use is likely related to the fact that the instruction givers’ role is to instruct the instruction receivers to draw the route as the latter have no route on their maps. The instruction receivers’ role is to share with the instruction givers the details about the landmarks on their map and let the instruction givers direct them depending on these (instruction receivers’) details and on the route layout and the landmarks on their maps. So, the instruction receivers’ role is basically to tell the instruction givers what landmarks they have and introduce them into the discourse. Therefore, Function A is used more by the instruction receivers.

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Function B, Reintroducing information to introduce new details about the route layout

Function B refers to map task speakers’ reintroducing shared information, the agreed on information both by the instruction givers and the instruction receivers and taking it as a point of departure of their clause message to introduce new details about the curves of the route. So, the point of departure of the clause message is approached from unusual angle that is of location rather than the route line. This Function is similar to Function A above in terms of introducing new details. Yet the new details are not landmarks as they are related to the layout of the route. So, Function B could be considered as a sub- category of Function A. As with describing the location of the new landmarks in Function A above, the curves of the route are described from unusual location of shared information in contexts that the curves are easier to be described from the location of these shared landmarks as illustrated in Example 5.2 below from the dialogue of group eleven; the full data script of the dialogue of group eleven is presented in Appendix K. The other marked Themes instances denoting Function B are described in Appendix M and indicated by the Function’s symbol ‘B’.

Example 5.2

1511) IR11: cool and we’re about underneath the cottage or… 1512) IG11: yeah it must be underneath

1513) IR11: ok

1514) IG11: um and then on my map there is a… symbol just down and left of your cottage called forests

1515) IR11: down and left I have a stone giant

1516) IG11: ok with your stone giant, I want you… need to make like a ‘C’ shape around it quite a big ‘C’ about two thumbs heights worth.

1517) IR11: ok

1518) IG11: so go over your stone giant and then quite far down and then a ‘C’ shape

1519) IR11: yeah

1520) IG11: and then it quite a long line across the page it goes from quite far under your stone giant to what I have as under the tree

In Example 5.2 above, the route line is underneath ‘cottage’ (lines 1511, 1512), a landmark on IR11’s map (line 1514). IG11 continues describing the route line; it is passing by a new landmark on the IG11’s map, ‘forest’ (line 1514). ‘Forest’ is not found on IR11’s map; yet on IG11’s map it is located to the left and down of where ‘cottage’ is on the IR11’s map (1514). In line 1515, IR11 confirms that she does not have ‘forest’

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down and left of her ‘cottage’ and that she has ‘stone giant’ instead. ‘Stone giant’ is new landmark which IR11 reintroduces by taking down and left which is shared between her and IG11 as a point of departure of her message to repair the meaning according to Function D below. To easily describe route line shape and not to confuse IR11 because of the discrepancy of having a ‘stone giant’ instead of ‘forest’, IG11 chooses to describe the route line with relation to ‘stone giant’. So, she reintroduces ‘stone giant’ and takes it as a point of departure of her route line description and instructs IR11 to draw a big C shape around it (line 1516). Approaching the clause message of describing the route from a shared location has aided IG11 in describing the route. IR11 confirms that she follows IG11’s description (line 1517) and IG11’s following instructions confirm that the instruction is clear to IR11 (lines 1518, 1520).

As already noted, IR11 used marked Theme ‘down and left’ (line 1515) to repair meaning, Function D with relation to the availability of ‘forest’ on her map. Yet, more importantly ‘down and left’ appears in sequence with marked Themes ‘and then on my map’ (line 1514) and ‘ok with your stone giant’ (line 516). Their occurrence in sequence enhances IG11 and IR11’s ability to construct the common ground about the location of ‘stone

giant’ on the latter’s map and facilitate IG11’s addition of the new details about the route

line consequently aids IR11 in grasping the new details effortlessly as the extract above shows. Marked Themes appear in sequence in two other instances; they are presented in Examples 5.6 and 5.11 below.

As Table 5.3 above, 9 marked Themes denote Function B, ‘reintroducing information to introduce new details about the route line’; 7 uses by the instruction givers and 2 by the instruction receivers. The two uses of Function B by the instruction receivers occur in groups 5 and 12 in which the instruction receivers give details about the route line they