VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
POST-GRADUATE DEPARTMENT
  An Investigation into the System of Theme and Rheme in Electronic
News Headlines:
the Case of BBC News Headlines




MA MINOR THESIS

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 06.22.15
Field: English Linguistics
Code: 06.22.15
, M.A.
, 2011

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CIRTIFICATE OF ORGINALITY OF STUDY PROJECT REPORT i
ACKNOWLEDGMENT ii
ABSTRACT iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATION iv
FIGURES AND TABLES v
TABLE OF CONTENT vi

INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale 1
2. Scope of the study 1
3. Aims of the study 2
4. Methodology 2
5. Design of the study 3

DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: REVIEW OF LITERATURE 4

1.1 Headlines 6

2.2.4 Functions of Rheme in the corpus 36
2.2.4.1 Process in Rheme Position 36
2.2.4.2 Participant in Rheme Position 37
2.2.4.3 Circumstance in Rheme Position 38

CONCLUSION 40

1. Sumary of the findings 40
2. Concluding remarks 41
3. Limitations and suggestions for further study 41

REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………………43
APPENDICES…………………………………………………………………………….I
APPENDIX I: BBC NEWS HEADLINES IN TERMS OF THEME AND RHEME
APPENDIX II: THEME ANALYSIS
APPENDIX III: THEME-RHEME AND TRANSITIVITY

1
SUMMARY OF THE THESIS

INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Newspapers is generally said to have more readers than any other kinds of
written text. In the newspaper, it is the headlines that have the highest
readership. "A headline describes the essence of a complicated news story in a
few words. It informs quickly and accurately and arouses the reader's curiosity."
(Ungerer, 2000:48). News headlines are particularly important for the way
readers comprehend a news text, they are markers that monitor attention,
perception and the reading process. Since the initial place has an enormous
importance in a clause, the choice of what comes first in the headlines is crucial.

examined to some extent.

3. Aims of the study

This study aims at shedding a light on the use of theme in contemporary news
headlines. As there has been relatively little research into use of theme in news
headlines, this study attempts to fill this gap in the literature on thematic
structure. More importantly, this study is an attempt to contribute to a broader
framework for the investigation of theme.
According to Brown (2000:4), to understand complex issues, asking the right
questions is more valuable than “possessing storehouses of knowledge”, so in
this light, 3 key research questions addressed in this thesis are:

• How is Theme-Rheme structure realized in BBC news headlines?
• What are the functions of theme in the headlines?
• What factors govern the theme choice of the press headlines? 4 Methodology

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4.1 Type of the Study
The type of research applied in this research is descriptive. Descriptive research
is used to analyze the parts of the clause based on thematic structure.
In addition, in this research, the writer uses quantitative analysis, in that things
are counted. It is, however, not merely a statistical analysis; the quantitative data
is used as a basis for interpretation. The study is based on the theory of systemic
functional grammar developed by Halliday, particularly on the notions of
Theme-Rheme, within Theme-Rheme and on notions of transitivity.

and organization of writing.
Development: This is the main part of the thesis, which includes two chapters
Chapter 1, Review of Literature consists of previous studies, the researches that
have almost similar to the data analysis and the theories in doing the research,
i.e. theory of theme-rheme structure and theoretical concepts of news headlines.
Chapter 2, Them-rheme Analysis of BBC news headlines presents finding
results and discussion.
Conclusion: This part summarizes the analysis and discussion done in previous
parts of the paper. It also provides the limitations of the study and suggestions
for further studies.
Apart from the 4 main parts, appendices are also included. Appendix I is the full
analysis of theme in terms of markedness and multiple/simple theme and theme
as transitivity role. Appendix II offers analysis of theme choice as participant,
process and circumstance. The thematic structure and transitivity are presented
in Appendix III. REVIEW OF LITERATURE

1.1 Headlines

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1.1.1 Definition of press headlines
1.1.2 Surface structural categorization of headlines
1.1.2.1 Plain Headlines
1.1.2.2 Speech as Headlines
1.1.2.3 Headlines with Pointer

interpersonal themes are not necessary. In addition, textual themes are not
typically thematic in headlines because of its linking role. Commonly, it is not
popular to have experiential, textual and interpersonal theme in a headline.
Among three elements which form the experiential part of a theme, participant
appears with most frequency (91.8%) followed by circumstance (6.81%), then
process (1.39%). While participant and circumstance are used to state, process as
experiential element is always used to appeal. Their different roles decide their
different distributions.
Typical themes in the news headlines are participants involved in material,
relational and verbal processes. Actors are thematized much more than any other
participants. This is clearly attributed to genre and the writer's purpose, which is
to inform people about events. The high proportion of sayer and verbal processes
in the themes is because of the fact that a good deal of news is about what people
say about the events.
Finally, the total headlines, thus, answer the well-known questions: what
happens, where it happens, to whom it happens, who did it, what the results are,
and in what context it happens.

CONCLUDING REMARKS

In this study, what I have been trying to do is to apply systemic functional
grammar approach, particularly system of theme and rheme in analysing English
press headlines. In order to have this analysis, I have consulted theories related
to thematic structure from different theorists, and I have chosen the one by

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Halliday to base my study on. In details, throughout this study, theme choices

transitivity system. However, the object of this thesis realised by simple or
complex clauses is at micro level, another aspect of theme-rheme structure,
thematic progression is not discussed in the thesis since thematic progression is
only realised by text at macro level.
For further studies, to analyse thematic structure comprehensively, the object of
study could be converted to text, that is news including headlines and news
itself. Moreover, news could be seen on different views on theme: Theme as
topic, Theme as given or known, Theme as having the least degree of
communicative dynamism, and Theme as message onset.

3. Limitations and suggestions

Basically, the different views on theme are divided into four categories: Theme as
topic, Theme as given or known, Theme as having the least degree of
communicative dynamism, and Theme as message onset. This study; however,
could not cover all of those due to the limitation of time and limited number of
pages, it only focuses on the last mentioned category, theme as message onset.
This thesis attempts to investigate the system of theme and rheme in news
headlines, so many aspects have been mentioned like the markedness, simple
theme as well as the multiple theme, the theme and rheme together with
transitivity system. However, the object of this thesis realised by simple or
complex clauses is at micro level, another aspect of theme-rheme structure,
thematic progression is not discussed in the thesis since thematic progression is
only realised by text at macro level.
For further studies, to analyse thematic structure comprehensively, the object of
study could be converted to text, that is news including headlines and news
itself. Moreover, news could be seen on different views on theme: Theme as
topic, Theme as given or known, Theme as having the least degree of
communicative dynamism, and Theme as message onset.