Global Journal of Human Social Science, G: Linguistics and Education, Volume 22 Issue 9

Figure 3: The THEME system of Myanmar. IV. C onclusion 4 https://www.burmalibrary.org/sites/burmalibrary.org/files/obl/mal_18.12.21.pdf Construction of the THEME System of Myanmar Theme-2 Rheme-2 © 2022 Global Journals Volume XXII Issue IX Version I 63 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 G „…inspected the learning of the students in peace.‟ ( Myanma Alinn Daily Newspaper 2021: 7) 4 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 (1985, 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 mood- marking), and experiential/topical Themes.