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Theme and focus

Exercises
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Given and new information
There is often more than one way of saying the same thing. How we say it
depends on several factors the emphasis we want to give to different
parts of the message and what we thin is the most important part. Often
we begin with something already known or GIVEN, and keep the
important NEW INFORMATION to the end of the sentence.
Decide which is the likeliest (unmarked) answer to each of the following
questions.
Example: When shall we know what Marys going to do?
(a) Next week we shall know.
(b) Its next week we shall know.
(c) Shell tell us next week.
(d) Next week she will tell us.
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1. What have you done with your car?
(a) We have sold our car.
(b) Weve sold it.
(c) Our car has been sold.
(d) The car we have sold.
2. Is there a post office near here?
(a) Theres one near here.
(b) Near here theres one.
(c) Theres one just beyond the chemists.
(d) Just beyond the chemists is the post office.

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3. Where do you keep your car?
(a) I have to park it outside the house.
(b) Outside the house is where I park it.
(c) Its outside that I park my car.
(d) Park it outside is what I have to do.

4. Which newspaper do you read?
(a) The Guardian I sometimes read.
(b) The Times is my favourite paper.
(c) Usually The Daily Telegraph.
(d) What I read is The Independent.


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5. What are the most popular TV programmes in your family?
(a) Comedy programmes and the news are watched by all the family.
(b) Comedy and the news are our favourite TV programmes.
(c) We regularly watch comedy programmes and the news.
(d) Its comedy and the news that are most popular with us.
6. How often do you go to the cinema?
(a) About once a week.
(b) About once a week on average I go.
(c) About once a week on average I go to the cinema.
(d) I go about once a week on average.
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Theme and focus: end-weight
Although we do not always begin a sentence with something
known or given, the beginning is usually the THEME or topic
of our sentence what we are going to talk about, so that we
can out the FOCUS of attention on the new information.
This has an important consequence for the shape of a sentence.
We often need more words for the new information than for the
given or the theme so the end of the sentence often has to be
the longest part with END-WEIGHT. Sentences with a lot of
weighty information at the beginning are much more difficult to
understand.

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The sentences below have been written out here in unmarked word
order (SVOCA). But they were originally written in a different order to give
end-weight (and end-focus) to the more important information. Can you
reconstruct them as they were originally written?
1. S I
V had extracted
O the admission that, while the frontier would in effect have been
closed to everyone else, he would, in view of my official position, in
principle have been prepared to let me cross it, if there been any means
of getting me across.
A after an hour or two
A from my interlocutor BEGIN WITH ONE OF THE As.

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2. S The Revolutionary Guards
V beat up and
V detained
O Mr Edward Chaplin, a British diplomat
A for one day
A in apparent retaliation for the arrest in Manchester of one
of their consular officials on shoplifting charges.
MOVE ONE OF THE ADVERBIALS TO GIVE END-WEIGHT TO
THE OBJECT AND TO THE OTHER ADVERBIAL.
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3. S David Sylvester
V argues (that)
A in his contribution to Late Picasso (25, paperback 17.95)
S these pictures
V lay
O the horror of growing old
C naked
MAKE THE ADVERBIAL THE OPENING TOPIC. THEN
EMPHASIZE THE FINAL OBJECT.
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4. S We
V cannot deduce
O any very confident pointers towards the next general
election which may be as much as four years hence
A from an election in which the dont knows and dont cares
won by a distance
GIVE END-WEIGHT TO THE OBJECT.
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5. S Wild horses
V would not have dragged
O the truth
A from me
EMPHASIZE THE OBJECT.
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Theme and focus
Bearing in mind that in answering peoples questions we should
focus on the new information that they want, choose the likeliest
answers in the following.
1. Who was the first man to walk to both Poles?
(a) Robert Swan (GB) led expeditions to the South Pole in 1986 and
to the North in 1989.
(b) Robert Swan (GB), who led expeditions to the South Pole in
1986 and to the North in 1989.
(c) A small expedition to the South Pole in 1986 and another
expedition to the North were both led by Robert Swan.
(d) Robert Swan became the first man to walk to both Poles.
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2. What was the name of his south Pole expedition?
(a) The Footsteps of Scott was the name of his South Pole
venture.
(b) It was called the Footsteps of Scott.
(c) He led a South Pole expedition called the Footsteps of Scott.
(d) The Footsteps of Scott was the name given to this
expedition.
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3. How big was this Footsteps of Scott expedition?
(a) There were just three men.
(b) Three men took part in the Footsteps of Scott expedition.
(c) A three-men expedition is what it was.
(d) Three men walked to the South Pole.
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4. How long did the South Pole trek take them?
(a) Through the worst Antarctic winter for years they trekked for
seventy days.
(b) For seventy day they trekked through the worst Antarctic
winter for years.
(c) For seventy days through a terrible Antarctic winter they
trekked.
(d) It took them seventy days through the worst Antarctic winter
for years.
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5. And was the North Pole walk also a three-man expedition?
(a) No, the international expedition had eight men.
(b) No, it wan an eight-man international expedition.
(c) No, eight men from different countries walked the North
Pole.
(d) No, there were eight men walking to the Pole from different
countries.
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6. Did this North Pole expedition have a name?
(a) Yes, Icewalk it was called.
(b) Yes, Icewalk they called it.
(c) Yes, Icewalk was its name.
(d) Yes, it was called Icewalk.
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7. Wasnt there some connected environmental project involving
students?
(a) Yes, a connected environmental project involved international
students.
(b) Yes, twenty-four students from fifteen countries took part in
some connected environmental project.
(c) Yes, an international group of students did some interesting
work.
(d) Yes, there was a connected environmental project involving
students.
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8. Where did this part of the project take place?
(a) At the polar team base on Canadas Ellesmere Island.
(b) Canadas Ellesmere Island is where the project took place.
(c) Ellesmere Island, where the polar base is, is part of Canada.
(d) At the polar team base on Ellesmere Island environmental
studies were carried out.
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Marked focus
Read the passage. Then, in the exercise that follows, mark the stressed
words in the answers that probably receive the main focus.
MFPA is not the charity but a company entirely owned by seriously disabled
members of the Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists. Its
members have all learned to draw and paint with the brush held in the
mouth or with the toes.
Perhaps the best known MFPA artist was Christy Brown, who died in 1976.
The Oscar-winning film, My Left Foot, was based on his autobiography.
Christy Brown was born with a disability, but some MFPA artists have
become disabled as the result of accidents. Bruce Peardon was in the
Navy when a serious road accident left his with a permanent spinal injury.
During his long stay in hospital he met two MFPA artists who encouraged
him to paint. He is now a very accomplished landscape artist who is well
known for his illustrations of children.
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1. MFPA doesnt sound like a real company.
- But it is a real company. ANSWER: But it is a real company.
2. It must be difficult to paint with your mouth or feet.
- Very difficult.
3. So the Association was founded in nineteen sixty-six.
- No, nineteen fifty-six.
4. And do the members manage to support their families?
- I dont know about their families, but they support themselves.
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5. I saw the film about Chris Brown on television.
- Not Chris Brown, Christy Brown.
6. Oh yes of course. The film shoed him writing and drawing with his
right foot.
- His left foot.
7. Hes dead now, isnt he?
- Yes, he died in 1976.
8. Id like to see some of Bruce Pearsons work.
- Peardon, not Pearson.
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9. How awful to have an accident after leaving the Navy.
- No, he was still in the Navy.
10. And hes now an accomplished portrait painter?
- I think hes mainly a landscape artist.
11. And he met some MFPA artists while he was in hospital?
- Actually, he met two MFPA artists, who encouraged him.
12. There are plenty of able-bodied people with the use of their
hands who cant draw or paint at all.
- Its amazing to draw and paint without hand.