The Minor Theme Of A Prepositional Phrase

Matthiessen (1995: 637):

The textual option in the prepositional phrase has just been illustrated for wh-phrases. That is, the prepositional phrase may be thematic as a whole, or its Complement/Range may alternatively be thematic on its own:

What's it | like_ | out today?

✝ That house I'll never set my foot | in_ | again.

From the point of view of the prepositional phrase, the Complement/ Range conflates with a function that is external to the prepositional phrase (shown as Theme ↑). If the nominal group serving as Complement/ Range has an elaborating or extending Facet (Selector) and its structure is ambivalent, it is even possible to thematise only the non-Facet part of the nominal group (cf. Matthiessen, 1991):

✝ That peak I've never talked about [a picture of _].

Blogger Comments:

[1] Again, this misconstrues what is thematic at clause rank — the prepositional phrase or its Complement/Range — as thematic at phrase rank.

[2] To be clear, the clause That peak I've never talked about a picture of is extremely unlikely.