thematicity

Thematicity is a concept in linguistic theory that refers to the degree to which a particular word or phrase expresses a specific aspect or concept, known as a theme. This concept is closely related to the ideas of topicality and focus, which are used to describe the way in which speakers and hearers use language to talk about specific aspects of a situation or topic.

Thematicity is often studied within the framework of linguistic theories that describe the syntactic structure of sentences, including generative grammar and case theory. In these approaches, thematicity is often seen as a property of individual words or phrases that reflects their inherent meaning or "theme". The theme can be seen as the underlying content or proposition expressed by a particular word or phrase, regardless of its grammatical form or syntactic positioning in a sentence.

For example, in the sentence "The ball was kicked by John", the word "ball" is typically seen as expressing the theme of the sentence, which is the idea of something physical moving through space. In contrast, the word "kicked" can be seen as expressing the action or "mode" of the sentence, which is the way in which John caused the ball to move. The degree of thematicity of different words or phrases can affect the way in which sentences are interpreted and understood.

Research on thematicity has also led to the development of theories that describe the way in which themes interact with other linguistic elements, such as tense, aspect, and modality. These theories have been applied to a range of languages and have shed light on the complex relationships between language structure, meaning, and usage.