Week 15: Exercises on “Theme – Rheme System”
Read the following text carefully, then divide it into clauses (10 clauses).
After that, identify their Theme-Rheme patterns.
Example:
It’s just a letter
It ‘s just a letter
Top. Theme Rheme
By the way did you ever pay that dollar to the post office?
By the
way
did you ever pay that dollar to the post
office
Textual Interp. Topical Rheme
Theme
During this summer of 1846, while her literary hopes were waning,
an anxiety of another kind was increasing. Her father’s eyesight
had become seriously impaired by the progress of the cataract which
was forming. He was nearly blind. He could grope his way about, and
recognize the figures of those he knew well when they were placed
against a strong light; but he could no longer see to read, and thus (his
eager appetite for knowledge and information of all kinds) was severely
balked. He continued to preach.
Elizabeth Gaskell Cranford (1857)
