REFLECTIONS ON THE MAIN SYNTACTIC PROCESSES OF THEMATIZATION IN ENGLISH IN ALAN PATON’S PLAY SPONONO

Abstract

This paper will analyse the main marked syntactic structures of thematization in English in the play Sponono, written by Alan Paton in 1965. The analysis will point out that due to the use of these thematization processes in the play, i.e. cleft sentence, pseudo-cleft sentence, topicalization and passive, the author emphasizes the feelings and thoughts of the main characters in the play. The analysis will also make clear that the examples of the structures under analysis are used in situations of climax and the main reason for the author to use them is to highlight the social situation that surrounds the play: the apartheid period in South Africa. The paper will discuss how Alan Paton creates a social reality throughout the recurrent use of these processes. In the same way, these syntactic processes contribute to the vividness of the play. The social situation of this period in South Africa has very particular characteristics that the author tries to point out and reproduce with the processes of thematization he uses recurrently during the whole play. The analysis of the corpus following the theory of Systemic Functional Grammar will be helpful to understand the relationships between language and culture and language and situation.