Matthiessen (1995: 199):
In principle, only participants and circumstances can serve as Theme in English (outside of imperative clauses) so if the process is to have thematic status it has to be represented metaphorically as a participant (or circumstance): The investigation started in 1992.
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To be clear, this overstates the case. Although the Process is the least likely element to be thematised in indicative clauses, there are common instances of the type:
They said it would rain, and rain it did.
For a text that makes much use of Process as Theme, see Alan Bennett's The Uncommon Reader.
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