The Influence of Thematic progression on Coherence in College English Writing1

1、a thesis of linguisticsthe influence of thematic progression on coherence in college english writing abstractenglish writing is not only a very complicated course, but also one of the language skills most difficult to improve. college english compositions are full of many serious problems, and incoh

2、erence is one of them. the coherence of an english text depends not only on the cohesion of grammar and lexis, but also the coherence in meaning. according to textual linguistics, thematic progression is an important factor to ensure the coherence of a text. as to the relationship between thematic p

3、rogression and coherence, many scholars from home and abroad have done a lot of research, however, most of these researches just stay at the stage of applying thematic progression in analyzing coherence of the paragraph, and the research of applying thematic progression in analyzing coherence of the

4、 whole text has not been carried out much. based on this cognition, the thesis attempts to apply thematic progression in analyzing coherence of the whole text. the thesis gives a clear idea of thematic progression first, and then it analyzes coherence of examples of the college students english writ

5、ing by applying the thematic progression. finally the thesis proves that both the writing coherence and the writing ability of the students can be improved by fostering their textual consciousness through the theory of thematic progression.key words: thematic progression; coherence; college students

6、 english writing摘 要近年来，作为最重要的语言能力之一，写作在大学英语教学中受到越来越多的关注。英语写作是一个非常复杂的过程，也是最难提高的语言技能之一。大学英语作文普遍存在许多严重的问题，而文章缺乏连贯性便是问题之一。英语语篇的连贯不仅体现在语法和词汇的衔接上,还体现在语义连贯上,而主位推进又是使语篇语义连贯的重要因素之一。关于主位推进与连贯的关系，国内外许多学者已进行了大量的探讨和研究，但大多是停留在应用主位推进分析段落的连贯性这一层次上，而应用主位推进分析整个篇章的连贯性这种研究还很少进行。基于这一认识，本文尝试着应用主位推进对整个篇章的连贯性进行分析。论文清楚地介绍了主

7、位推进模式，并将主位推进应用于大学生英语写作实例中，分析其连贯性, 证明了在大学英语写作教学中,如果注重运用主位推进理论来培养学生的语篇意识,写作的连贯性和学生的写作水平均会得到提高。关键词： 主位推进； 连贯； 大学生英语写作table of contentsabstract in english.abstract in chinese.1. introduction.2. literature review.2.1 review of thematic progression research2.2 danes patterns of thematic progression.2.2.1

8、simple linear thematic progression2.2.2 thematic progression with a constant/continuous theme.2.2.3 the derived pattern the derived themes pattern the derived rhemes pattern (the split rheme pattern). 2.3 thematic progression and coherence3. studies on college english writing.3.1 pro

9、blems in college students english writing.3.2 guidance function of thematic progression in college english writing.3.3 the application of thematic progression in college english writing.3.3.1 the application of thematic progression in a paragraph3.3.2 the application of thematic progression in a who

10、le text4. conclusion.bibliographyacknowledgements . .144667889111212131314172930311. introductionin the college english test (cet), writing is a kind of test means which best embodies students actual english level, and it is also one of the language skills most difficult to improve. a lot of univers

11、ity students can already write out the compositions that accord with normal grammar rule but give people a vague and non-smooth feeling in organization of the text, expression of the idea and arrangement of the structure. aiming at the problems existing in students english writing, a lot of experts

12、and scholars have made untiring efforts, and have carried on analysis and research on students english composition from different angles, and one of the important aspects is to apply the theory of textual linguistics to make research on the problems of textual cohesion and coherence rather than gene

13、ral grammar mistakes in english writing.how to effectively use cohesive devices to improve english writing has been a hot topic of foreign language teaching research in recent years. there have been a lot of correlative achievements. some scholars think that the cohesion which is necessary in text b

14、uilding correlates with the quality of students composition to some extent. in english writing many chinese students use few textual cohesive devices, and this makes their compositions non-smooth and the sentences shift from one topic to another abruptly. this fact relates to the lack of cohesive se

15、nse. besides, the applications of cohesive devices in chinese students english writing and native foreigners writing have distinct differences: chinese students use much fewer cohesive words and phrases than native foreigners. in addition, even to those chinese students who have solid english basic

16、skills in lexical and grammar, they still have such problems in their writings, as ambiguous references, misuse or overuse of conjunctions, ambiguity of demonstrative pronouns, and a limited use in lexical cohesion and so on. (beaugrande&dressler,2001; witte&faigley,2002; 杜金榜,2001; 徐伟成,2000) some ot

17、her scholars apply the cohesive theory of halliday and hasan (2001) to describe and analyze the application actuality of cohesive devices in chinese college students english writing. at the same time, they bring some opinions forward about how to train students abilities to apply various cohesive de

18、vices so as to strengthen textual coherence. (陈香，2002) these researches from home and abroad indicate, as the most basic factor of english writing, cohesion that endows the words with textual property, is the basic of textual coherence, and can react on organizing textual structure.from above studie

19、s, it can be seen that these scholars just try their best to roundly describe the usages of different cohesive devices in english writing, but dont excogitate an effective model to direct teachers and students to analyze the text in english writing class so as to intensify the teaching and learning

20、effects in english writing class. based on this cognition, this thesis attempts to apply an effective way “thematic progression” that can analyze coherence in english writing to help students realize that in a text each sentence always has regular relations with other sentences. when it comes to the

21、 concept of “thematic progression”, two important terms should be mentioned, that is “theme” and “rheme”, which were firstly brought forward by the founder of the prague school, v. mathesius (黄国文，1998). since then, many linguists have done many studies in such a field such as hallidays expatiation o

22、n “theme” and “rheme”. (halliday, 2000) moreover, “thematic progression” is a theory put forward by frantisek danes (黄国文，1998). it mainly includes three patterns of thematic progression by danes early proposal. the appearance of thematic structure and thematic progression has opened a new field for

23、language study. these theories have great practical value. some language educators have tried to apply thematic structure and thematic progression patterns in foreign language teaching; and some of them have already made preliminary achievements. based on these achievements, linguists began to make

24、research on thematic progression and coherence. however, up to now, most studies are just staying at the level of applying thematic progression to analyze coherence of the paragraph, and the study of analyzing coherence of the whole passage has not been carried out much.therefore, based on the theor

25、ies of researchers from home and abroad, this thesis is intended to deal with coherence of the whole text from thematic point of view, and to illustrate thematic progression as a major contributor to coherence of the whole text. besides, the thesis, in applying thematic progression in analysis of co

26、llege students english compositions, tries to find out the textual incoherence and to revise these incoherent compositions, thus providing implications for both teachers and students in future english writing.2. literature review2.1 review of thematic progression researchtheme and rheme are the two

27、terms which were first put forward by the founder of prague school, vitem mathesius, a linguist in 1939. he analyzed how information is distributed in sentences to make a text coherent. each simple sentence has a theme the starting point of the utterance and a rheme, everything else that follows in

28、the sentence which consists of what the speaker states about, or in regard to, the starting of utterance (mathesius, 1942). later halliday and some other linguists accept the terminologies of theme and rheme. according to halliday, the role of theme serves as a point of departure of a message, often

29、 reflecting the topic of utterance; and the rest, the part in which the theme is developed is the rheme. that is, the known information is regarded as the “theme”, and the new information the “rheme”. for example, john sat in the front seat. in the front seat sat john.john is the grammatical subject

30、 in both sentences, but theme in and rheme in . to illustrate the theme and the rheme structure, see the following figure.the duke my aunt that teapothas given my aunt that teapot.has been given that teapot by the duke.the duke has given to my aunt. theme rhemetheme-rheme structurethough halliday (2

31、000) stresses the function of themes in organizing a text by stating that the choice of themes plays a fundamental part in the way discourse is organized; and this in fact constitutes what is often known as the method of development of the text. in theory, halliday himself has not elucidated themati

32、c progression. the study is made mainly by fries and danes.danes contribution is to extend the concept of theme as point of departure of a single utterance (sentence) to that of explaining the texture of text. his basic assumption is, the choice and ordering of utterance themes, their mutual concate

33、nation and hierarchy, as well as their relation to the hyper themes of the superior text unit, such as the paragraph, chapter, to the whole text, and to the situation. thematic progression might be viewed as the skeleton of the plot. (danes, 1974:114) danes (1974:118-9) suggests a number of ways in

34、which strings, chains, themes and rhemes may interact in text.every sentence has its own theme and rheme. when a sentence exists alone and has no context, its theme and rheme are fixed and changing, at the same time without any development. however, most texts are constructed on the basis of more th

35、an two sentences which are internally related. thus the theme and rheme in the following sentences will have some connection with the theme and rheme in the former sentences. the connection between sentences is realized with the progression process from theme to rheme. this is called thematic progre

36、ssion.in his book zur linguistschen analyse des textstrukfer, danes points out that the essence of thematic structure lies in the cohesion and coherence of the themes in the clause, their internal relationship and their relationship with the content and the text. he claims that the progression from

37、theme to rheme represents the basic structure of a text. as theme is the starting point of a message, thematic progression in paragraphs is closely related to the writers purpose of writing. danes thinks that from the point of text organization, it is the theme that plays an important constructing r

38、ole.the thematic organization of the text is closely connected with how discourse is connected. the discourse and its paragraphs can be regarded as the succession of themes. in a coherent discourse, sentences are not freely grouped together and there is a certain law guiding the train of thought. wh

39、ile people are creating a text, they connect the inner-related sentences together to express a complicated idea. the real thematic progression of a discourse actually refers to the cohesion and connection of the themes, the relationships between themes and their subordinates and the relationship bet

40、ween themes, the paragraph, the whole discourse and the setting. all these kinds of relationships can be thought as “the pattern of thematic progression”. 2.2 danes patterns of thematic progressionafter much observation of different types of texts, danes (1974) points out that there are some rules i

41、n the arrangement of thematic structures, therefore he comes up with three main types of thematic progression patterns: simple linear thematic progression, thematic progression with a constant/continuous theme and thematic progression with the derived pattern.2.2.1 simple linear thematic progression

42、danes (1974: 118) refers to this as the most elementary or basic thematic progression. in this pattern, the rheme or a part of the rheme in the preceding clause becomes the theme of the subsequent clause. the following graph manifests this model (t=theme; r=rheme):t1-r1 t2 (=r1) -r2 t3 (=r2) -r3for

43、example: the first europeans (t1) to set foot in texas were spanish explores (r1). for many years the spaniards (t2=r1) who colonized mexico heard stories of “the great kingdom of the tejas” (r2). these stories (t3=r2) described native american people (r3).in this text, the theme of the first senten

44、ce is the first europeans; the rheme of the first sentence spanish explores is taken up as theme of the second sentence spaniards. and the rheme of the second sentence stories of “the great kingdom of the tejas” becomes the theme of the third sentence these stories.in this pattern, each theme natura

45、lly grows out of each previous rheme, and the whole paragraph is coherent as themes are clearly related. as the theme develops, new content is presented to the reader one after another. it is easier for the reader to get the main train of the writers ideas. the writer will usually employ this themat

46、ic pattern to describe or explain the object to the reader, or to emphasize the theme or rheme. an example from cet-4 (college english test band 4) can also illustrate this pattern clearly:nowadays, if you want to seek employment (t1), mostly you will have to go through a job interview before you ca

47、n get it (r1). a job interview (t2=r1) enables both the interviewer and the interviewee to get a fairly clear picture of each other (r2). (cet-4, 1995.6: /cet4/writing/model-writing.html )2.2.2 thematic progression with a constant/continuous themethe theme in the preceding c

48、lause is employed as the themes in the subsequent clauses; it is illustrated like this:t1-r1 t2-r2 t3-r3peter h. fries called this type of thematic progression theme iteration. here, the same theme enters into relation with a number of different rhemes. the result of this type of thematic progressio

49、n is that the themes in the text constitute a chain of co-referential items, which extends through as sequence of sentences or clauses. rhemes describe the different aspects of the same event or thing from different angles.for example:the saw-scaled viper (t1) is found in dry sandy areas where there

50、 is little vegetation (r1). its length (t2) is about two feet (r2), and it (t3) is sandy in color with darker spots (r3). it (t4) is aggressive and very poisonous (r4). it (t5) may be found in the full blaze of the sun or beneath hot stones and in crannies heated by the sun (r5).this text is from a

51、booklet on survival in tropical forests, and it provides an illustration of constant thematic progression (tp) pattern in use; here the theme of each clause refers wholly (it) or partially (its length) to the main topic of the text, the saw-scaled viper (bloor, t. & bloor, m, 2001: 90).with regard t

52、o chinese college students english writings, this pattern is also commonly used in the compositions of cet-4. here goes one example from some model writings of cet-4:yet many others (t1) dont think so (r1). they (t2) think that numbers have nothing to do with luck (r2). they (t3) regard numbers simp

53、ly as mathematic symbols for counting. they are anything but a mystery (r3). they (t4) laugh at those who think numbers can bring good luck (r4). (cet-4, 1998.6: /cet4/ writing/model-writing. html)2.2.3 the derived pattern the derived themes patternthe first clause i

54、s the topic sentence; the themes in the subsequent clause may derive from the theme of the first clause. a diagram can be used to show this clearly: t1-r1 t2-r2 t4-r4 t3-r3in this type, the theme of the first clause is often called hypertheme of the text. the themes of other clauses are all derived

55、from the so-called hypertheme. theme and rheme expand separately at the same time.for example:thousands of people (t1) rush into big cities every year (r1). some (t2) come for education (r2). some (t3) come for shopping or sightseeing (r3). some (t4) come on business (r4).each of the subordinate the

56、mes here is derived from the hypertheme “thousands of people”. this kind of thematic progression pattern is normally used as the beginning paragraph of students compositions, particularly argumentations. the following example from cet-4 illustrates this point:different people (t1) have different opinions about money (r1). some (t2) hold that money is t