Factors Influencing the Communicative Value of Declarative Sentence Components
There is no one-to-one correspondence between the structural and the communicative components of the sentence. All parts of the sentence can function both as the theme and as the rheme. At the same time, there is no gainsaying the fact that there exist certain correlations between communicative and syntactic functions.
In the first place, the communicative value of a sentence pan depends on the volume of the sentence. Thus, in the two-element structure S - V the communicatively transitional predicate (and even the operator in 'sentence representatives') usually functions as the rheme. Cf.:
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Mary! Can't you forget? - No, dear. But I forgive (E. O'Neill).
Cancel it. -1 won'/ (D. Steel).
The lexical peculiarities of the predicate-verb play an important role, too. For example, verbs expressing strong feelings and emotions are apt to Sanction as the rheme, e.g.:
I hate my own hometown (J. Braine).
I enjoyed my soup (A. Christie).
Besides, one should not disregard the part-of-speech nature of the sentence components. Verbs, adjectives and adverbs, which indicate properties, are predisposed to function as the rheme; nouns and pronouns, which either name or point to things and properties, are predisposed to function as the theme.
What is more, one should bear in mind the functional peculiarities of different language varieties. In conversation, with its interest in all the circumstances under which the discussed events have taken place, it is the adverbial that constitutes the rheme in the vast majority of cases, e.g.:
I'm going beautifully (E. Hemingway).
I came from New York, Mama (W. Saroyan).
As for academic prose and newspaper texts, aimed at reporting discoveries and news, they quite naturally show a prevalence of objects in the function of the rheme. Cf:
In Chapter YI we discussed nouns and their qualifiers (J.H. Grattan).
The Italian Prime minister ... appealed for unity and calm among his coalition partners after a slump of the lira on world markets (The Guardian).
A relatively high proportion of rhematic adverbials in newspaper texts is easy to explain, too: the genre of news is designed not only to inform the reader of what has happened but also to place the reported event in time and place, e.g.:
She had left an office party at a nightclub in Cardiff at around midnight on Friday (The Guardian).
Communicative Analysis of Imperative and Interrogative Sentences
The communicative analysis of imperative sentences, which give commands and express requests, differs from the communicative analysis of declarative sentences, which make statements, only in one respect: the predicate-verb in imperative sentences much more often functions as the rheme. Cf.:
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Listen*. (A. Maltz).
Listen to me, Sophie (L. Hellman).
You listen to this (Ch. Dickens).
For God's sake, forget thepast\ (E. O'Neill), etc.
But other parts of the sentence are registered in the function of the rheme, too. Cf.:
Go out. Wait in the car (T. Williams) - adverbial.
Tell me the truth (V. Woolf) - object.
Will I call your father and Mister Jamie, or will you? - You do it (E. O'Neill) - subject.
Interrogative sentences are functionally and structurally heterogeneous. The so-called general (or yes/no) questions are asked in order to find out whether the relation between the predicate and the subject is true or false, e.g.:
Are you a doctor1? - Yes (J. Aldridge).
Is lunch ready yefl ~ Of course not\ (Meet the Parkers).
According to V. Mathesius, the rheme in ^es/Mo-questions is constituted by the initial predicate-verb. V.E. Shevyakova does not share this point of view on the ground that the initial predicate-verb m English _yes/«o-questions is semanticaliy weak and simply cannot form the rheme of the sentence. What is more, there are a lot of non-inverted yeVno-questions of the type: The door was closed*? - Yes (E.S. Gardner), where nothing but the nuclear stress helps us identify the rheme.
In general, the nuclear stress can fall on any part of \heyes/no-question. Cf.:
Do you smoke! -1 don't (M. Spark) - predicate.
Did you get everything? - Yes (J. Cheever) - object.
Where's the stuff? Did you leave it in the car! (T. Williams) -adverbial.
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As is evident from the obtained data, the communicative structure of yes/no-questions has much in common with the communicative structure of declarative sentences. It is hardly surprising: y&s/no-questions are statements whose authenticity is called in question by the speaker.
The so-called special (or w/i-questions) are resorted to by the speaker in order to get some information from the addressee, e.g.:
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When did you arrive1? - Last nisht (A. Christie).
Since it is w/i-elements that signal the speaker's desire for information, V. Mathesius qualifies them as rhematic. But rhematic elements always bear a nuclear stress. As for Wi-elements, they are seldom intonationally marked. Does it mean, then, that w/z-elements should be excluded from rhematic elements? Evidently not. The thing is that, as opposed to declarative sentences, which serve primarily to make statements, wA-questions perform at least two communicative functions. On the one hand, they determine the sphere of the unknown (the rheme); on the other hand, they indicate the starting point for the addressee's answer. The rheme is morphologically marked: it is a w/2-eIement. Nuclear stress would certainly impart additional emphasis to the rheme, but even without it, the addressee generally finds no difficulty in understanding what the speaker is interested in. The choice of a starting point for an answer turns out much more difficult, especially if the interrogative sentence is rather long. To help the addressee, the speaker identifies the desired starting point by giving it a nuclear stress. As a rule, it is an adverbial or an object, e.g.:
Why are you having a wash now! (Meet the Parkers).
How much money have Igotl (F.S. Fitzgerald).
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