Chapter 1 Introduction

1,1 Background of the Study

In the modern society, shipping is truly an important international industrybecause now it is in charge of nearly 90 percentage of global cargo transportation anddelivers goods to people and communities all over the world. It provides a dependableand low-cost way to transport goods, facilitate commerce and help to create prosperityamong nations and peoples. Since shipping is the essential component for futuresustainable economic growth, it can only operate effectively if the regulations andstandards are themselves agreed, adopted and implemented on an international basis.And International Maritime Organization (IMO) is the forum at which this processtakes place.As the specialized agency of the United Nations，IMO is the globalstandard-setting authority for the safety, security and environmental performance ofinternational shipping. Its main role is to create a regulatory framework for theshipping industry that is fair and effective, universally adopted and implemented. Thisapproach of IMO also encourages innovation and efficiency. In addition, the worldrelies on a safe secure and efficient international shipping industry — and this isprovided by the regulatory framework developed and maintained by IMO. Themanagement scope of IMO covers all aspects of international shipping, includingshipping design, construction, equipment, manning, operation and disposal. And as anauthority in maritime industry, IMO owns its official magazine called the IMO NewsMagazine.

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1.2 Research Questions

Through the combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods, thisthesis mainly explores the characteristics of themes，thematic structures and TPpatterns of EMN texts. Therefore, the thesis would be designed to answer thequestions below:

(1) According to Halliday's Theme-Rheme theory, what are the distributions ofdifferent types of themes used in EMN texts?

(2) What are the characteristics of theme structures in EMN texts?

(3) What are the distributions of TP patterns applied in EMN texts?

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Chapter 2 Literature Review

2.1 Theme and Rheme

The application of tiie term theme can be traced back to the ancient Greece. It isPlato who first comes up with two terms "onaoma" and "rhema，，to combine witheach other as a binary structure, which later evolve respectively as the terms "theme"and "rheme" (Zhu et al, 2004). Then a classical scholar from France, whose name isHenri Weil，becomes the pioneer who first presents the concept of theme and rheme.The one who first presents the notion of Theme and Rheme is the founder of thePrague School，Wem Mathesius. He lays the foundation of Discourse Analysis byinsisting on his point of view that the study of structures in sentences and the waythese sentences convey information should be undertaken from a communicative andfunctional angle. Many other different scholars, such as Danes and Firbas fromPrague School, not only give their agreements on Mathesius’ theory, but also makegreat supplements to itAfter the Prague School, the Theme-Rheme theory has continually got greatsupplemented and developed by different linguists through their researches as well.Later on the Theme-Rheme theory has been applied by Halliday and he uses it todevelop his textual function theory of his three meta-functions.Halliday (2000) claims that, theme is not only tiie information that is knownbefore, but also functions as the use of departure for the information meaning. Inaccordance with Halliday's theory, theme means the beginning part of the clause，which as a criterion especially fits English language. Hence Halliday，s theory is ofgreat significance to the study ofEMN.

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2.2 Classification of Theme

Theme occupies an important position in Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG).Furthermore, it is of great importance to classify theme into different types accordingto diverse standards. The classification of theme can be sorted by two methods. In thelight of its component, theme is made up of marked theme and unmarked theme. Andaccording to theme structure, it can be classified as simple theme, multiple theme andclausal theme (Shi Jun, 2011), The next section would give detailed information ofthese classifications. As referred in section 2.1.2.2，a sentence owns two basic elements which aresubject and predicate from the traditional grammar aspects. And according to thefunctional grammar, a sentence has a theme and a rheme. When the theme in thesentence happens to be the same with the sentence's subject, the theme is namedunmarked theme. Conversely tiie theme is marked theme.

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Chapter Three Research Methodology.........   33

3.1 Material Collection......... 33

3.1.1 Research Subject..........     33

3.1.2 The Principle of Material Collection......... 35

3.2 Instruments and Relevant Units .........36

3.2.1 Instruments .........36

3.2.2 Relevant Units......... 36

3.3 Research Procedure......... 37

Chapter Four Data Analysis And Discussion......... 39

4.1 Analysis of Different Themes.........     40

4.2 Analysis ofTTieme Structures......... 44

4.3 Analysis of Thematic Progression Patterns......... 49

4.3.1 Identification of Thematic Progression Patterns......... 51

4.3.2 Discussion of the Sample......... 58

Chapter Five Conclusion......... 63

5.1 Major Findings .........63

5.2 Limitations of This Study......... 64

5.3 Suggestions for Further Study.......... 65

Chapter 4 Data Analysis and Discussion

In this section, the theoretical basis namely the Theme-Rheme theory and theclassifications of TP patterns would be applied in the analysis of tiie 30 pieces ofsamples randomly chosen from the collected 300 pieces of EMN. And the analysiswould be both manually conducted and with computer aided. Therefore, the featuresof the EMN text from the Theme-Rheme and TP patterns perspectives would beobtained after the research and it mil be a great help for the readers and learners tobetter understand EMN.This chapter is made up of three sections. The first section is mainly about theidentification and analysis of marked and unmarked themes in 30 samples. In thissection of the thesis, the analysis of the classification of themes in 30 samples wouldbe presented and explained. And tiie second section of this thesis studies the themestructures in 30 smnples and classifies them into three types. Then an analysis of thethree classifications of theme structures would be detailedly interpreted. In tiie thirdsection，the 30 samples would be analyzed from the discourse level and their TPpatterns would be analyzed in details and classified into eight TP patterns as describedbefore.

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Conclusion

In the previous chapters, the discussions have been made about theme and rheme;the classifications of themes; the theme structures and TP patterns in the analysis ofEMN samples. By the analysis of these 30 samples chosen from the official websiteoflMO, it can be concluded that the theme and TP theories are closely connected withEMN texts. With tiie aid of theme and TP theories, the analysis of the internalcoherence of EMN is totally conducted and the interpretation process of the texts ismore sooth and logical.In this chapter, the major findings of the analysis of EMN would be summarizedand ^presented ih-the first section. Then the limitations of this study would bediscussed. And in the last part some suggestions for furttier study are proposed.

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Reference (omitted)