Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to construct the THEME system of Myanmar following the system network for Theme in English proposed by Halliday 1985 1994 Halliday and Matthiessen 2004 2014 within the framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics It is found that the THEME system of Myanmar consists of two sub-systems Theme status and Theme composition For the former there are two major types unmarked and enhanced Themes while for the latter Theme can be presented in two ways simple and multiple Themes Unmarked Themes in Myanmar clauses are Subject Complement Adjunct hypotactic clause Predicator only in imperative and Ba-element only in interrogative The enhanced Theme in Myanmar contains two major types equative or preposed attribute Multiple Theme includes textual interpersonal and topical Themes which can be chosen as a point of departure of the clause The findings may shed light on the realization of the textual metafunction of Myanmar language