Then, the steps in the schema need to be compared to see what concepts they are all related to. If there is a concept that all the steps make use of in their role in the schema, and if in each role the speaker’s intrinsic
interest in that concept is somehow expressed as well, then that concept is a theme. If no such concept exists, then the unit has no theme, at least not a prototypical theme. And if it has no theme, its schema has
no head, and this treatment hypothesizes that it will be noncoherent for addressees §2.2.5. So the definition of theme is both rigorous and has testable consequences.
This definition indicates that certain things are not discourse themes. •
Themes are not
MOTIFS
, which are ostensive repetitions which have no particular relation to the conceptual structure. This distinction is not commonly observed. We read such statements as the
following: “the Greek word menô often translated by expressions such as ‘stay’, ‘dwell’, ‘abide’ occurs forty times in the Gospel of John, as opposed to only twelve times in the other three gospels
combined. Commentators point out its thematic significance” Wilt 2003:63. The present treatment, however, would not do so, unless menô could be shown to indicate a point of thematic integration for
the schema of a particular discourse unit. The evidence cited above only indicates it as a motif. The possibility remains, however, that what is a motif in relation to one discourse unit may turn out to be a
theme in relation to another structure see Figure 18 in §3.4.5.
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• Nor is theme the “main idea of a story, or the message the author is conveying” Wikipedia’s
definition. In the present treatment, that is rather a macropredication, a particular kind of theme, but there are other kinds as well, such as discourse topics. Not all coherent texts have a macropredication,
but all predictably have a theme of some kind §2.2.6.
3.4.2 Types of themes and types of schemas
Different kinds of conceptual objects can serve as discourse themes. The following list is tentative and possibly incomplete. It is not clear what a typology of themes should be based on, except texts. It is
possible that such a typology could be based on a typology of schemas, but that is not clear either. What does seem clear is that discourse themes are not all propositional nor are they all referential. The study of
discourse themes has been severely hampered by assumptions such as that all themes at a certain level are propositions or that a discourse unit can have only one theme.
Although all discourse themes are closely related to schemas, not all themes are related to schemas in the same way. In §2.2.5 a distinction was made between
HEAD THEMES
and
NONHEAD THEMES
. Head themes are highly expected because of their schema type; they are structurally construed by virtue of the
schema type, whether or not they are construed in other ways. It is largely via the head theme that the schema guides discourse development Chafe 2001:676f.. Nonhead themes, since they are not
structurally construed as head of the schema, must be construed in other ways.
In what follows, we begin to explore what kinds of conceptual objects can occur as themes according to the definition in §2.2.5 and what kinds of themes can be expected to occur as the head of a particular
schema type. S
CHEMA TYPES
can be considered as the conceptual counterpart of genres discourse types, text types, which can be treated as a type of encyclopedic or cultural knowledge to which all members of
a speech community typically have access Unger 2001:296. Further, “discourses are classified into genres depending on the specific expectations of relevance…they raise” Unger 2001:183, including
thematic expectations. Genres and schema types thus have an important role in the “management of expectations of relevance” Unger 2001:2.
There are four kinds of discourse themes which are commonly found in natural texts. •
D
ISCOURSE TOPICS
: A discourse topic is a referential theme. It may be an individual referent or a group of referents that is being treated thematically as a small closed set, as initially in the story of
“The three little pigs” §3.2. According to van Oosten 1984:378s, discourse topics are the most prototypical themes: “human beings tend to focus on entities.” A topic can be a schema head, as in an
encyclopedia article about England a descriptive schema; see Figure 15, a section of participant information in narrative as in Luke 2:36–37 about the prophetess Anna; Example text 11, a
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On the distinction between theme and motif, see also Heimerdinger 1999:66 and Floor 2004:241.
biographical narrative, or an interview that gathers various kinds of personal data about the interviewee Hinds 1979:138f.. Commonly, however, a topic is a nonhead theme. This is the most
common way for a topic to be included in a narrative schema, as the “central participant” in a series of events, as in “Stone soup” §2.2.5. See also “false topics,” §3.5.1.
• S
ITUATIONS
or
SITUATIONAL THEMES
: This type of theme is generally a state, although it could include actions which are in some sense secondary, not full narrative events. The speaker could
present the situation in order to make an evaluative comment about it. In that case, the schema would be argumentational whose head would be the evaluative macropredication; the situation would be a
nonhead theme. This is a common text type in Mbyá Guarani Tupi-Guarani, Brazil when leaders get the community together to talk about problematic situations, often concluding that the situation is
bad. Hortatory also can have a situational nonhead theme. The notice cited in §3.2 appealing for information leading to the return of a lost dog is of this type: the situation is that the dog is lost, and
the macropredication as head theme is an appeal for help in finding him sweetened by a reward. Less commonly, situational themes can head a schema, such as the descriptive schema in the
paragraph of Acts 5:12–16 Example text 26 below, which seems to be a summary description of the situation with the early church at that particular point. This paragraph is embedded in a larger
narrative, in which it serves both as a summary or consequence of what has gone and an introduction to what is about to be told. A conflict between participants can also be considered as a situational
theme, common in narrative. The separate participants may be topical in different subparts of the text. The conflict is commonly only a provisional head theme §2.2.7; its resolution, a macropredication,
would be a final theme for the consolidated mental representation.
• G
OALS
: If someone is trying to bring about a certain situational state, the discourse may have a goal theme. In this case, the situational state is presented as being intended rather than factual. Goals could
include resolving a problematic situation in action narrative,
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reaching a desired destination in a journey narrative,
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or completing a procedure in a procedural text.
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For example, the narrative part of Churchill’s speech lines 01–13 of Appendix A, has a goal theme of forming a new government
and a macropredication that Churchill is doing it. “Winds of terror” Appendix B has a provisional goal theme: Pattie’s keeping the family safe in a tornado. Particularly if the goal is the intent of a one
of the participants, questions of whether and how it could be reached are often experienced by addressees as part of their imaginative involvement in the text world §3.6.1.
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In “Winds of terror,” for example, questions include: Will Pattie’s family survive? How? The goal serves as a provisional
theme until its resolution—a standard name for this part of certain texts—when a final macropredication indicates whether and how the goal is reached. Goals are also common in
procedural schemas, such as the Guarani bow text Example text 9. Brown and Yule 1983:72f. cite a contrived text about sorting clothes before they are washed and note the following “reasonable
replies” to the question of what the text is about: “washing clothes,” “how to do the laundry,” “a guide to getting your clothes cleaner.” These replies indicate goals. Procedural texts typically have a
macropredication stating that the goal can be reached in a particular way. Some schemas with goal themes also have obstacles. An
OBSTACLE
is anything that threatens achieving the goal: enemies, dangers and fears in narrative, difficulties in procedure and objections in argument structure.
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In “story-grammars” as proposed by Rumelhart and Thorndyke see discussion in Brown and Yule 1983:117– 121, a goal is obligatory.
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In a journey schema with a desired destination as goal, the destination is often the spatial deictic center, so that participants reach the goal with ‘coming’ verbs Zubin and Hewitt 1995:154f.. Thus, we find in Numbers 13:22
“When they had gone up into the Negev, they came to Hebron” and in 20:22 “Now when they set out from Kadesh, the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, they came to Mount Hor.”
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According to Dixon 1987, procedural discourse has the global goal of building a “mental plan” for performing a task. An example of such a text is Example text 9 from Mbyá Guarani in how to make a bow, which apparently has
two global themes: the procedural goal and the global topic of generic bow.
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Grimes 1975:64–70 includes such questions under “collateral” information.
Overcoming an obstacle is commonly a goal theme for some subpart of the text which is construed with its own schema as a separate discourse unit. “The train ride” Appendix C has a provisional
global goal, for the narrator and her family to get to Omaha by train. The text contains obstacles which are dealt with in separate episodes. In regard to its external conceptualization §2.2.1, a text is
commonly embedded in a goal structure having to do with the speaker’s goal in giving it.
• P
ROPOSITIONAL THEMES
and
MACROPREDICATIONS
: As explained in §2.2.6, a macropredication, as a summary of what the discourse unit says, is actually a type of discourse theme, apparently a head
theme in each case. Argumentational schemas and consolidated narrative schemas commonly have macropredications. Commonly, a macropredication makes a statement about a nonhead theme. A
macropredication about a discourse topic, found in an encyclopedia article that is discussed in §3.4.4, is that the climate of England topic is moderate. The barber interview Appendix F presents a
macropredication there isn’t too many taking it up about the topic new barbers today. A hortative text typically has a hortatory macropredication along with a nonhead topic the person who is to carry
it out, as in the final part lines 14–35 of Churchill’s speech with its exhortation “Support the new government” that is directed first to Parliament but also to the nation. Wishes, on the other hand,
commonly lack this agent-topic and typically contain very little support material; they tend to be short, as in line 31 of Churchill’s speech Appendix A: Let that be realized. A macropredication
about a situational theme, mentioned above, is that a certain situation is bad. A macropredication about a goal theme, common in narratives such as “Winds of terror” see above or “Stone soup”
Appendix D, is that the goal was achieved in a particular way. A macropredication can even be about a nonhead propositional theme, as when the speaker seeks to establish that a certain prominent
proposition is true or false, as happened in the Jerusalem council of Acts 15 around the proposition “Circumcision is necessary for salvation.”
In Paez Macro-Chibchan, Colombia, certain paragraph themes are indicated by noun phrases as topics, while others, possibly macropredications, are indicated by entire sentences. Both kinds of themes
are left-detached elements which occur paragraph-initially and often elsewhere and have the same enclitic which occurs with sentence topics in the access function Gerdel and Slocum 1976:275. In
Guarani Mbyá, titles of written stories are either noun phrases ‘the past life of an ancient hunter’ or nominalized propositions ‘what happened as I was going along the path’ or ‘my having been startled as I
went along the path’. Nominalized propositions in titles seem to arise from reifying a situation or a macropredication in order to manipulate the text as a single chunk §2.3.3.
Figure 14 is a very tentative summary of certain schema types with common kinds of themes head or nonhead, provisional or final.
Schema type Common
provisional head theme Common final head theme Common nonhead theme
narrative goal or situation
macropredication topic
biography topic topic
procedural goal macropredication
hortatory goal
macropredication topic or situation
wish goal macropredication
situation argumentation macropredication
macropredication situation or
proposition description
topic or situation topic or situation
Figure 15: Schema types and common kinds of themes
Schemas are sometimes produced by blending two simpler schema types Fauconnier 1997, ch. 6; Fauconnier and Turner 1998. For example, there may be a blend of hortatory and procedural schemas, as
when Jesus tells his disciples to prepare the passover supper and how to find the place Mark 14:13–15.
3.4.3 Signalling themes
