Lezione 2 – 26/10/20

Le lezioni dei CEL si terranno online il martedì e il giovedì alle 12:30 (chiave di accesso all’aula
teams jorb61r) e la professoressa ritiene fondamentale che noi li seguiamo. Inoltre, chiederà alla
lettrice un report sulla nostra partecipazione e per alcune attività chiederà di seguirci lei stessa.

Il progetto inTRANSlation è un progetto di traduzione di opere audiovisive a tematiche

omosessuale, transgender e questioning. Negli ultimi anni lei ha partecipato con il suo corso a
questo festival: si vanno a produrre sottotitoli di film inediti che vengono presentati in Italia durante
questo festival. Per quanto riguarda questo progetto faremo delle lezioni che verteranno sulla
materia del sottotitolaggio più nello specifico. Partecipare a questo progetto (è facoltativo) può
essere sfruttato per le presentazioni in ppt da fare a fine anno in gruppi. Bisogna comunicare al più
presto la propria partecipazione al festival perché partecipano tante persone e potrebbe capitare che
finiscano i posti. Il numero consigliato di partecipanti per ogni gruppo di sottotitolaggio è 4/5
persone.
Allego il volantino delle modalità di iscrizione e tutte le info utili a riguardo.
Today we’re going to speak about discourse grammar which you may already know. It is grammar
related to discourse. During our previous lesson we looked at unity but here we are speaking of
unity of texture: about how a text makes meaning through certain devices that regulate the focus
and flow of information. Some scholars like Halliday had theorised the flow of information in text
and the Prague school, and they had two different views. They will help us in translation. The
Topical theme is the point of departure of the message (Halliday looks at theme and rheme), ant it is
related to information prominence. The rheme is the new information (what the sentence has to say
about the theme). The topical theme in a way could be what we look at such as a subject or a
predicate, instead we have also a textual theme which we have structural elements such as
conjunctions. These are contextual themes because they are related to those connections which are
made evident by conjunctions. Also, we have interpersonal themes which express a point of view
on the content, so those elements that express an attitude. An interpersonal theme can express
probability (e.g. perhaps), usuality (e.g. sometimes), typicality (e.g. generally), obviousness (e.g.
surely). It can also express opinion (e.g. sometimes), admission (frankly), persuasion (e.g. believe
me), entreaty (e.g. kindly), presumption (e.g. no doubt), desirability (hopefully), prediction (e.g. as
expected). These elements are classified by Halliday as interpersonal theme and to summarise they
relate to the attitude we may have about a proposition. Let’s look at an example.
ex. Genre is a term in widespread use to indicate an approach to communication which emphasizes
social function and use, but several uses of the term can be identified
Here genre is the topical theme (what we already know), while is a term in widespread use to
indicate an approach to communication which emphasizes social function and use – is the rheme,
the new information. But is the textual theme, several uses of the term is a topical theme and can be
identified is a rheme. So here we can see a flow of information. We could speak about what is the
flow of the information in this sentence: it would be genre  topical theme n.1; is a term in
widespread use to indicate an approach to communication which emphasizes social function and
use  rheme 1; but  textual theme n.2; several uses of the term  topical theme n.2 and can be
identified  rheme n.2. If we instead want to look at the focus of the information of course we
think about the two topical themes.
Another example: However it seems unlikely that Descartes would deliberately challenge the
Church.
However is a textual theme; it seems unlikely that is an interpersonal theme; Descartes would
deliberately challenge the Church is the rheme related to the topical theme.
It does not mean that we always have a sequence in which we have a theme and a rheme.
We can look at the semantic development like in this case where are indicated what is happening on
the right of your slide. Here we have a thematic development based on a theme reiteration (the
repetition of the same thing) or constant theme. (see the picture)
This is the sentence Text can be used for both spoken and written language. So we have a theme
1 (text) and rheme 1 (can be used for both spoken and written language). Then we have the
repetition  it is a pronoun referring to text. Usually refers to a stretch of writing or speech this
is rheme 2, related to rheme 1 which gives us another information. Then we have the introduction of
theme 2 (discourse), rheme 3 (is a much wider term) and a repetition of theme 2 with the pronoun it
referring to discourse.
On another occasion we can find another completely different way of organising the information
flow. For instance, the linear theme. In this other example we have a theme 1 the term modality; a
rheme 1 describes a range of grammatical resources used to express probability or obligation.
This rheme 1 is then transformed into theme 2 because here we have: Generally interpersonal
because it tells something about the attitude. Obligation (is connected to rheme 1) theme 2; is
used in speech rheme 2.

We have multiple theme and split rheme. In this case we have a theme 1  when Japanese people
and rheme 1 write their language; theme 2 (related to theme 1) they and rheme 2 use a
combination of alphabets as well as ideograms borrowed from Chinese; theme 3 the two
alphabets and rheme 3 are called hiragana and katagana; theme 4 the Chines ideograms and
rheme 4 are called Kanji.
All these concepts are important for writing and translation because when we are translating we
look at the unit (often it is a paragraph or a sentence), so we need to think about how the
information flow is organised and often theme and theme behave in different ways depending on
the language. According to Halliday in English language we will have the theme always at the
initial position because he introduces the concept about the interpersonal theme and textual theme.
For him but is a textual theme. The way that in different language we organise the information flow
is very important because often we may use theme and rheme in a different way in order to mark a
difference, to give emphasis to what we are saying. According to Halliday and Baker, this is
fundamental for translation. The book In Order Words by Baker focuses a lot on the information
structures and on cohesion and coherence. This book is very good for translation because all its
examples are not English- Italian.
So how do we create these links? How do we make sure that our audience understands the
information flow? This is the great revolution of discourse grammar. The scholars looked at
grammar from a discourse point of view. The first definition we gave to discourse is the language
above the sentence level. So, discourse grammar is looking at the grammar from the point of the
whole discourse, of the relationships which are made evident by the discourse grammar features.
According to these scholars, traditional explanations of grammar do not adequately capture
grammatical selections in real-world texts. For instance: it often signals reference to a continuing or
ongoing topic in a text; this often indicated the raising of a new topic; that has a distancing or
marginalizing effect rather than just demonstrative functions. So, if I want to distance myself from
something that somebody is saying I’ll use that.
Before we have talked about unity. Unity of structure looks at the information structure, focus and
flow. While the unity of texture is the creation of cohesive and coherent texts through language
items and tie meanings together in the text as well as tie meanings in the text to the social context
(Halliday and Hasan, Cohesion is a fundamental book which inaugurated the studies on cohesion
and coherence).