Chapter 1Preliminaries
1.1Panoramic overview of Medical English
English for Science and Technology (EST hereafter) is classified into twocategories: English for Common Science and Technology and English for SpecializedScience and Technology. Medical English for Common Science and Technology(medical English hereafter) is a branch of English for Common Science andTechnology which is frequently seen in issues, newspapers and magazines. Thisdissertation mainly studies medical English. Medical English is the English onmedicine for our ordinary readers which is especially used by medical professionalsand associated coworkers such as doctors，nurses and interns. It is also used amongdoctors，nurses and patients. English for Specialized Science and Technologymainly focuses on some of the professional principles and knowledge for theprofessionals who engaged in a certain specialty. Contents of this kind of Englishare generally much more specialized, so even the native speakers of English could notunderstand medical English deeply. EST aims at conveying information in differentscientific fields which is characterized by exactness，logicalness, appropriateness，objectiveness, standardization, coherence，conciseness and simplicity rather thanartfulness. Medical English is a big branch of English for Common Science andTechnology which is a major part of EST. Medical English shares the familiarcharacteristics of EST，so medical English is also exactness, logicalness，appropriateness, objectiveness，standardization, coherence，conciseness and simplicityrather than artfulness.
1.2A brief overview of Systemic Functional Linguistics
The main differencebetween functionalism and formalism is found in the researching guideline oflanguage. Meanwhile, recent decades have witnessed the great prosperity ofSystemic Functional Linguistics (SFL hereafter), a significant member of the schoolof functionalism. According to Li (1992: 248), SFL considers function andsemantics as the basis of human language and communicative activity. SFL seeslanguage system as meaning potential which consists of two components: systemicgrammar and ftinctional grammar. As a complete language theory framework, thesetwo are indispensible. Systemic grammar states that language is a social semioticsystem network and a system of meaning potential which is a range of optionsavailable in a certain environment. SFL is also named as Systemic FunctionalGrammar (SFG hereafter). As a general linguistic theory, SFL takes a scientificstudy of human language as its object of investigation. In addition, as appliablelinguistics，it is used to “solve a range of problems faced by potential 'consumers' oflinguistics" (Coffin 2001:94)，and is employed in many fields to depict linguisticphenomenon of various kinds and to solve many language-related problems.Admittedly, it is these two orientations that promote the development of SFL as amainstream linguistic theory in the world of modem linguistics. In other words, theapplication of the theory itself which definitely should not be neglected is also veryimportant and valuable.
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Chapter 2Literature Review
2.1Introduction
This chapter revolves around the overview of the previous studies of Theme-Rheme theory, various studies of medical English and various studies of medicalEnglish from the perspective of SFL. Many scholars studied Theme-Rheme theoryand medical English from different perspectives. The previous studies of Theme-Rheme theory consist of two components: researches of scholars abroad onTheme-Rheme study and researches of scholars in China on Theme-Rheme study.Simultaneously, there are various studies of medical English such as: the study ofcharacteristics of medical English; the study of Medical English writing^ithe study ofMedical English translation; the study of medical linguistic competence in healthcarecontexts and the study of medical English teaching. The third part of this chapter isabout various studies of medical English from the perspective of SFL which includestwo components: one is systematic and comprehensive analysis of medical Englishand the other is the analysis of medical English from the perspective of .^terpersonalmetafunction. The last part of this chapter discusses the differences between thisdissertation and other researches about medical English from the perspective of SFL,and the necessity and advantages of this dissertation.
2.2Theme — Rheme study
According to Fries (1983)，he refers to thematic information and structure as thethe ‘combining’ approach and ‘separating’ approach (1983, cited in Baker, 2000: 121).Although they are related closely, he holds that they are specific speakers. Fries(1983) believes that the information that is contained within Themes of the varioussentences of passages correlate with the method of development of the passages.Halliday (2000: 299) says "Theme and Rheme are speaker-oriented, while Given andNew is listener-oriented". Since 1981 Fries began to talk about Theme from theangle of information flow. He puts forward the concept of "New informationRheme" which strengthens the correspondence between Rheme and New information.Danes (1969) develops the Theme theory in another aspect and formulates histhought in his book. He believes that Rheme plays an important role for conveyingnew information. But from the perspective of text organization, it seems that Themeis more important because Theme becomes the vital means of constructing text andburdening less information. According to him, every text could be seen as anarrangement of Themes.
Chapter 3 Theoretical Framework......16
3.1Introduction........16
3.2Organizing the message: the textual metafiinction — Theme......16
Chapter 4 The Characteristics of Medical English.....24
4.1Introduction244.2Definition of vocabulary..........24
Chapter 5 Anatyzing the Textual Metafunction of Medical English...34
5.1Introduction345.2Analysis process of thematic structure of medical English.............34
5.2.1Theme in declarative clauses.............35
Chapter 6Some Difficulties of Theme Analysis in Medical English
6.1Introduction
In chapter five，the focus has been mainly on identifying Theme in variousclauses of medical English texts and also mentioned different reasons for choosingcertain constituents as Theme or choosing certain structures to express Theme choices.However，it dose not give us a Ml picture of all cases. The following chapter wouldmainly analyze three other special thematic structures which were not mentioned inprevious chapters: passive clauses and their Theme, existential 'there' in Theme andinterpolations in Theme.
6.2Existential “there’ in Theme
Thompson (2008/2010: 161) holds that the only problem with existential"there" is that it is Subject and therefore should be Theme, however, it can not fulfillthe thematic criterion of delivering experiential meaning，and the existence isembodied not just by “there，，，but also by "there" plus the verb "be". Thus, it makessense that "there be" should be Ihe Theme. In medical English，there are a lot of"there be" clauses which are used to illustrate medical phenomena or observations.Here are some examples mentioned below.(5.94)There are definite limits to our ability hear souds. (from text 5)(5.95)There is a broad range of growth rates in tumors, (from text 8)(5.96)There is a wide spectrum of sequelae to infection by EBV. (from text 12)(5.97)There is compelling evidence that T cell—mediated immunity is requiredfor control of EBV infections, (from text 13)(5.98)There are several routes by which drugs may be absorbed into the body,(from text 13)(5.99)There are certain drugs used with humans that have also been squirted on these cells in dishes, (from text 15)(5.100)There was considerable understanding of the diseases that could bestudied by clinical observation, (from text 15)This session has just discussed that it makes sense to include the process inTheme, which means the Theme includes experiential content. For example, in 5.94,there are is Theme not there alone, which means the Theme is signaled not just bythere but also by there plus the verb ‘are，. ‘There be' clauses are objective andpersuasive，which conforms to the characteristics of medical English which isdefinitely objective, logicalness and accuracy. So in case 5.94-5.100，it is clear thatexistential there plus the existential process which is realized by the verb ‘be，functionas Theme and point forward to the content of Rheme which signal the topic of theclause.
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Chapter 7Summary and Conclusion
7.1 introduction
This final chapter will give us a summary of the present research and putforward suggestions for further researches of medical English, which means it is timeto retrospect to the past and prospect into the future.Apparently, it has not been possible to reach an accurate enough definition ofTheme to provide a definite basis on which scholars try to identify it precisely. Thealternative approach to identify it will not solve all the problems when we work withthematic choices in medical texts, so it is only through a large amount of analysis ofTheme in many registers and many texts, we could pin down what Theme really is.This dissertation represents a tentative effort to apply the Theme-Rheme theoryin analyzing medical English. The aims of this dissertation are to fill in the gap inthis academic field; serve as guidance for the learners to have a better understandingof medical English and sum up the features of the thematic structure of medicalEnglish. Here are the conclusions listed below:First, the analysis of the thematic structures of medical English is not onlyfeasible but also of practical and theoretical significance. It is useful in medicalEnglish learning and in the comparative study of Standard English and medicalEnglish. Second, the analysis of the thematic structures of clauses in medicalEnglish dose learners good to understand how the different constituents of a clauselogically link together to form a consistent, meaningful and formal text. Through theanalysis of thematic structure, learners could have a better understanding of theorganization of the text. Third，the analysis of thematic structures of clauses doeshelp the formation of learners' text-organization consciousness and the construction ofeffective and efficient communication among speakers. Forth, it can also improvelearners' understanding of medical texts, which is fundamental for translation (Shi, 2012), and other associated abilities such as medical English translation and medicalEnglish writing. Fifth, the analysis of the thematic structures of medical Englishmay contribute to the shaping and development of the systemic-functional theory ofmedical English.
7.2 Summarizing overview
In this concluding part, it is time to summarize the main structure of the wholeresearch and highlight the proposals which are relevant to the analysis of medicalEnglish under the theoretical framework of Theme-Rheme theory. In general, thepresent dissertation mainly consists of three parts: the introductory part, the centralpart and the concluding part. The introductory part falls upon the first four chaptersand each chapter deals with certain aspects of the preparations for the la|er analysis.The central part is composed of the next three chapters which try to analyze Themeand Rheme of medical English clauses. The present chapter is the last chapter of thewhole dissertation which summarizes the whole research, draw the conclusions andmake forward suggestions for the further researches on medical English.Chapter one provides the preliminaries for the whole dissertation, in which thefollowing sections are accommodated: the panoramic situation of medical English anda brief overview of SFL，the research background, the data and methodology and theorganization of the whole dissertation.
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参考文献（略）