ccording to Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL, hereafter), language serves three metafunctions: experiential, interpersonal, and textual (Halliday 1985(Halliday , 1994;;Matthiessen 2004, 2014;Fawcett 2000Fawcett , 2008, forthcoming), forthcoming). Based on the textual metafunction of language, the concept of the THEME system is considered. According to Halliday and Matthiessen (2004: 64), the THEME system construes organizing messages relevantly to the other notes around them and to the broader context in speaking or writing. The textual meaning of the clause is realized by a thematic structure consisting of two parts: Theme and Rheme. The Theme is the element that serves as the starting point of the message, while the remaining part is the Rheme that gives further information about the Theme. From a Systemic Functional approach, the studies of Theme 1 are based on Halliday's thematic structure (see Caffarel et al. 2004).

Research on Theme in Myanmar from a Systemic Functional approach is surprisingly scant (e.g., Hopple 2002; Rattanapitak 2009; Ozerov 2014). Rattanapitak (2009) studies the THEME system and its realizations in Myanmar from the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistics. However, Rattanapitak's (2009) study of Theme in Myanmar does not cover interrogative and exclamative clauses. Moreover, bias in the data collection also exists because it relies on only five Burmese religious tales extracted from Min Yu Wai's (1999) book entitled "38 Welfare Tales," containing 38 stories about Buddhist teachings. To meet this literature gap, this paper aims to develop the THEME system of Myanmar by supplementing it with the enhanced Theme based on the thematic analysis of different genres of Myanmar text from a Systemic Functional perspective.

In the THEME system of Myanmar proposed in this study, two sub-systems: THEME STATUS and THEME COMPOSITION are presented in order to show the flow of information in Myanmar text. For the former, unmarked and enhanced Themes are presented, while for the latter, simple and multiple Themes are presented. Theme in Myanmar typically functions as a Subject, Complement, Adjunct, or hypotactic clause. It can also function as a Baelement in interrogative, and a Predicator in imperative. Two major types of special thematic structures, such as thematic equatives and preposed attributes are found in Myanmar. Thompson (2004Thompson ( /2008: 164) : 164) characterizes them as enhanced Theme in his THEMATIC systems of English. The typical organization of a multiple Theme in Myanmar is textual^interpersonal^experiential. This study contributes to the understanding of how Myanmar people organize their messages relevantly to the context. The result makes an important contribution to a contrastive study of THEME systems between Myanmar and foreign languages.

Author: Professor and Head of Department of English, Sittwe University, Rakhine State, Myanmar. e-mail: [email protected] a) Theme and Mood

The choice of Theme in Myanmar clause depends on Mood choice. MOOD, the primary interpersonal system of the clause, provides interactants with the resources for giving or demanding a commodity such as information and goods-&-services -in other words, with the resources for enacting speech functions (speech acts) through the grammar of the clause: statements (giving information), questions (demanding information), offers (giving goods-&-services), and commands (demanding goods-&-services). This study focuses on major clauses of Myanmar. Minor clauses like /kaunnbye/ "ok", /hokekèt/ "yes" have no Mood choice and thematic structure, and so they are left out of account in this study. A major clause in Myanmar can be either indicative or imperative. Indicative has two options: declarative and interrogative. Exclamative is a subtype of declarative. The following will present thematic structures in each Mood type of Myanmar from the perspective of a textual metafunction. To meet this need, this study aims to develop the THEME system of Myanmar based on the network presented by Halliday (1985Halliday ( , 1994;;Matthiessen 2004, 2014). It is of great significance that findings are based on the thematic analysis of different genres of Myanmar text. In this study, the elaborations of unmarked Themes in different clauses and special thematic structures of Myanmar are supported with data from authentic materials, such as literature, news articles, and databases such as SEAlang Library Burmese corpus 2 . The thematic compositions of simple and multiple Themes in Myanmar are also presented in this study. The results of this study will form part of a more extensive study of the Systemic Functional Grammar of Myanmar.This study will also make a significant contribution to a contrastive analysis of THEME systems between Myanmar and foreign languages.

The THEME system is a grammatical resource for the organization of the clause as a message. It realizes the textual mode of meaning concerning the creation of text relevantly to the preceding text and context, which is intrinsic to language. The clause in any language has the character of a message, or quantum of information in the flow of discourse; therefore, every language has some form of organization contributing to the flow of discourse (Halliday and Matthiessen 2014: 88). Like other world languages, Myanmar clause is also organized as a message by having a special thematic status assigned to one part of it. This element is enunciated as the theme, and then it combines with the remainder to constitute a message. In spoken and written Myanmar, textual prominence (i.e., the thematic status) is given to an item by putting it first in the clause. The Theme is the first element functioning as the point of departure of the message, which locates and orients the clause within its context. In contrast, the remainder of the message (i.e., the part in which the Theme is developed) is known as the Rheme (Halliday and Matthiessen 2014: 89). Following Halliday's (1985Halliday's ( , 1994Halliday's ( , 2014) ) Theme-Rheme structure, this study explores thematic choices in different clause types in Myanmar, including simple clauses, clause complexes, and reported clauses. It also explores enhanced Themes or special thematic structures of Myanmar, such as thematic equatives and preposed attributes.

The Theme in Myanmar declarative functions as Subject, Complement, and Adjunct. The Theme functioning as a Subject or Complement is generally realized by a nominal group, nominal group complex, and clause. The Theme functioning as an Adjunct is typically realized by a prepositional phrase or an adverbial group.

In Myanmar, the unmarked Theme in WH-interrogative is Ba-element, analogous to the WH-element

? ? ? seelonn=hma inarr phyitmye-sothehmar ahman phyit-par-the.

Theme Rheme "It is true that unity is strength." Yes/no interrogatives function to ask for the polarity of the clause between "yes" and "no". The unmarked Themes in Myanmar yes/no interrogatives are the Subject, Complement, Adjunct, and hypotactic clause. The clause-final interrogator, such as /-larr/ and /-lè/) marks the end of the Myanmar yes/no interrogative. See Examples (7a)-(7c). (SEAlang Library Burmese Corpus)

The communicative purpose of the imperative is to ask the other person to perform the action. In Myanmar, the unmarked Theme in the positive imperative is the Predicator realized by the verbal group expressing the action to be performed by the addressee, while the one in the negative imperative is the Predicator along with the preverbal negator /ma-/ and the post-verbal particle /-nèt/ (cf. Examples 8 and 9). As Examples ( 8) and ( 9) show, there is no Rheme in thematic structures of Myanmar imperatives whose unmarked Theme is the Predicator. According to Halliday (1994: 52-54), every major clause has an experiential Theme (i.e., the first element with the experiential meaning of the clause). The thematic experiential constituent is labeled as the "topical Theme," which is closely associated with the topic of the clause in topic-comment analysis. It is also possible to have a purely interpersonal Theme (e.g., vocative, modal Adjuncts, and mood-marking) or textual Theme (e.g., continuative, structural, and conjunctive Adjuncts) before the experiential Theme. In this case, everything up to the experiential Theme is included in the Theme of the clause. The typical ordering of elements in a multiple Theme is textual^interpersonal^experiential, as shown in Example (13).

Thematic choices in Myanmar clause complexes and reported clauses are investigated in this study following Halliday (1985Halliday ( , 1994Halliday ( , 2014)). In a Myanmar clause complex, the dependent clause always precedes the clause on which it depends. In such case, the dependent clause is analyzed as the Theme for the whole clause complex. As every clause has a Theme, the dependent clause and the dominant clause are further analyzed into Theme-Rheme structure as in Example ( 14).

According to Thompson (2004Thompson ( /2008: 161): 161), "Reporting or projection has a different kind of relationship between clauses than other types of clause complex; this is reflected in the uncertain status of projected Themes in the text; and in the case of quotes, the analysis is usually straightforward in such a way that the reporter makes a thematic choice in the projecting or reporting clause and also recycles the original speaker's thematic choice in the quote." Both Themes typically play an essential role in the development of the text, and they are analyzed separately in the reporting clause and quote, as shown in Examples ( 15) and ( 16). ""Who attacked?" asked Juan Tomas quickly."

(Htin Lin 1999: 126)

In both direct speech and indirect speech in Myanmar, the reported clause comes after the Subject of the reporting clause. Each of them has its Theme. The Theme of the reported clause links in with the topic of the text, while the Theme of the reporting clause primarily develops the information by identifying the source (Thompson 2004(Thompson /2008: 161): 161). Both Themes, therefore, serve different functions in the development of the text, and they are identified separately, as illustrated in Example (17). ""It is a pearl of great value," Kino said."

(Htin Lin 1999: 97)

The second type of special thematic structure is the preposed attribute. It is a part of the Theme that introduces the quality of the following nominal group functioning as the starting point of the clause (Thompson 2004(Thompson /2008: 163): 163). The preposed attribute plus the following nominal group as Theme in Myanmar is shown in Example (19).

Special thematic structures of Myanmar (i.e., enhanced Theme) cover thematic equatives and preposed attributes (see Figure 3). In a thematic equative, Theme and Rheme are in the same status, which is pointed out by the verb to be, as shown in Example (18). IV. Based on the findings of thematic analyses on Myanmar's declarative, exclamative, interrogative, and imperative clauses, the THEME system of Myanmar is demonstrated in Figure 3. This paper presents the THEME system of Myanmar from the Systemic Functional perspective. In section 2, the previous studies on Theme in Myanmar have been reviewed. There are very few studies of Theme in Myanmar from the Systemic Functional perspective. Their analysis is based on the restricted data collection; consequently, they do not offer satisfactory answers to the organization of messages in different genres of Myanmar text. To meet this need, the present study has developed a system network for THEME in Myanmar based on the findings from the thematic analysis of different clauses: declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamative in Myanmar by using Halliday's (1985Halliday's ( , 1994) ) Theme-Rheme structure in section 3.

In conclusion, this study is of great significance in investigating how Myanmar speakers organize their messages coherently to the other messages around them and in the broader context of spoken and written discourse. The findings of this study characterize the textual metafunction of the Myanmar language and contribute to the Systemic Functional Grammar of Myanmar. This study has clear implications for further research on a contrastive analysis of Theme in Myanmar and foreign languages.

Findings show that the THEME system of Myanmar consists of two sub-systems: THEME STATUS and THEME COMPOSITION. The former contains two major types: unmarked and enhanced Themes, while the latter contains simple and multiple Themes. Unmarked Theme in Myanmar clauses can be Subject, Complement, Adjunct, hypotactic clause, Predicator (only in imperative), and Ba-element (only in interrogative). Enhanced Theme contains two major types: thematic equatives and preposed attributes. A multiple Theme includes textual (e.g., continuative, structural, and conjunctive Adjuncts), interpersonal (e.g., vocative, modal Adjuncts, and moodmarking), and experiential/topical Themes.