ABSTRACT
Clause as a message can be analyzed in terms of two types of structure: thematic structure and information structure. The Michael Hallidayan approach to the analysis of the clause as a message treats thematic and information structures as separate, though often overlapping, features of discourse organization. The two structures are seen to be essentially distinct from each other. Linguists belonging to the Prague School, in contrast, by and large conflate the two structures and combine them in the same description. Thematic choice involves selecting a clause element as theme. The main clause elements are subject, predicator, object, complement and adjunct. Like thematic structure, information structure is a feature of the context rather than of the language system as such. One can only decide what part of a message is new and what part is given within a linguistic or situational context. Identifying signals of information status is one area of information structure that is clearly relevant in translation.
