rhematic en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- /ɹiːˈmatɪk/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- /-ˈmæɾɪk/ (General-American)
- /ɹi-/ (General-American)
- /ɹəˈmætɪk/ (General-American)
- /ɹɪ-/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- (Southern-England) audio
Etymology
From Ancient Greek ῥηματικός (rhēmatikós, “verbal, pertaining to verbs”), from Ancient Greek ῥηματ- (rhēmat-), ῥῆμα (rhêma, “verb (grammar), word”) + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic; suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to, in the manner of’”).
Meanings
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(not-comparable) Of or pertaining to a rheme. ▸ Of a part of a sentence: providing new information regarding the current theme.
The terms "theme" and "rheme" are both derived from Greek, and are parallel to each other. The term "theme" comes from the Greek root the- "to set", or "establish", and means "that which is set or established". The term "rheme" is derived from the root rhe- "to say", or "tell", and means "that which is said or told" (about that which was set or established beforehand). These terms are also convenient because adjectives are easily derived from them: "thematic" and "rhematic", respectively. The etymology of the terms presupposes that the thematic part of the sentence contains the topic, while the rhematic part conveys new information about the topic.
2007, Iryna Alexeyeva, Theoretical Grammar Course of Modern English, Vinnytsia, Ukraine: Nova Knyha, →ISBN, page 295:Rhematic relations are, in a sense, 'intermediate syntactic meanings'. To avoid a proliferation of types of intermediate meanings I do not extend the concept of intermediate syntactic meaning to cover rhematic relations.
1983, Hans-Heinrich Lieb, Integrational Linguistics (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory; 17), volume I (General Outline), Amsterdam; Philadelphia, Pa.: John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 364:Given that rhematic subjects are more common in Czech than in English […], the degree of syntactic constancy among rhematic subjects may be supposed to be lower than among subjects counted without respect to their FSP [functional sentence perspective] role. To test this assumption, I collected 50 rhematic subjects from each original of Čermáková's sources and examined their syntactic counterparts in the other language.
2003, Libuše Dušková, “Constancy of Syntactic Function across Languages”, in Josef Hladký, editor, Language and Function: To the Memory of Jan Firbas, Amsterdam; Philadelphia, Pa.: John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 132:In addition, if imitation and recycling tend to turn thematic titles into rhematic ones as I have shown for Situations, the use of sequels and continuations cannot avoid doing so. The title Le Menteur [The Liar: [Pierre] Corneille] was perfectly thematic; in La Suite du Menteur [Sequel to The Liar: Corneille], which is rhematic (this play is the sequel ...), Le Menteur itself becomes rhematic (this play is the sequel to the play entitled ...).
1997, Gérard Genette, translated by Jane E. Lewin, Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 87:
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(not-comparable) Of or pertaining to a rheme. ▸ Of or pertaining to a sumisign.
[Charles Sanders] Peirce argues that common and proper nouns function typically as indices, whereas verbs and adjectives are typically icons and rhemes (MS 516:39). The noun camel is a rhematic index when it is interpreted and thus connected with real-life experience. The adjective green is a rhematic icon open to many interpretations because it says nothing about any object to which this color should be attributed.
2015, Winifried Nöth, “Three Paradigms of Iconicity Research in Language and Literature”, in Masako K. Hiraga, William J. Herlofsky, Kazuko Shinohara, Kimi Akita, editors, Iconicity: East Meets West (Iconicity in Language and Literature; 14), Amsterdam; Philadelphia, Pa.: John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN, pages 29–30:Rhematic Indexical Sinsign: As an object of raw experience, a burst of unplanned hollering is a rhematic indexical sinsign: it directs attention to the object which caused the presence of the sign […].
1995, Victorino Tejera, Literature, Criticism, and the Theory of Signs (Semiotic Crossroads; 7), Amsterdam; Philadelphia, Pa.: John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 137:
- (not-comparable, obsolete) Of or pertaining to word formation.
- (not-comparable, obsolete, rare) In Coleridge's work: relating to the arrangement of words into sentences clearly.
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(not-comparable, obsolete, rare) Having a verb for its base; derived from a verb.
Passive rhematic adjectives ending in -able […]
1877, Fitzedward Hall, On English Adjectives in -able, with Special References to Reliable, London: Trübner, →OCLC, page 47:Emotion may sometimes cause the speaker to adopt a marked sequence, and the rhematic adjective will then appear in sentence-initial position.
1976, Patrick David Teskey, Theme and Rheme in Spanish and English (Occasional Papers in Linguistics and Language Learning; 1), Coleraine, County Londonderry: Board of Studies in Linguistics, New University of Ulster, →ISBN, page 40:rhematic adjectives
In terms of its phrasal environment, adjective intensification seems to occur most 'naturally' in predicative position. By modifying an independent, rhematic adjective, the intensifiers seem to perform their function in the most efficient way.
1999, Gunter R. Lorenz, Adjective Intensification – Learners Versus Native Speakers: A Corpus Study of Argumentative Writing, Amsterdam; Atlanta, Ga.: Rodopi, →ISBN, page 210:Since in many languages adverbs do not have a fixed place in the word order, questions can be used to isolate the unmarked position of rhematic adverbs. […] There are facets of contrastive NPs [noun phrases] which are both "old" or thematic information and "new" or rhematic information. Consider the use of contrastive constructions to repair texts. In such cases the contrastive NP represents rhematic information in that it adds information to the text which corrects the hearer's error.
1992, Russell S. Tomlin, Richard Rhodes, “Information Distribution in Ojibwa”, in Doris L. Payne, editor, Pragmatics of Word Order Flexibility (Typological Studies in Language; 22), Amsterdam; Philadelphia, Pa.: John Benjamins Publishing Company, →ISBN, pages 120 and 130:
Synonyms
verbal (derived from a verb)