rhematic

Of or pertaining to a rheme.

Adjective

  1. Of or pertaining to a rheme.
    • Rhematic relations are, in a sense, 'intermediate syntactic meanings'. To avoid a proliferation of types of intermediate meanings I do not extend the concept of intermediate syntactic meaning to cover rhematic...
    • In addition, if imitation and recycling tend to turn thematic titles into rhematic ones as I have shown for Situations, the use of sequels and continuations cannot avoid doing so. The title Le Menteur [The Liar:...
    • Given that rhematic subjects are more common in Czech than in English […], the degree of syntactic constancy among rhematic subjects may be supposed to be lower than among subjects counted without respect to their FSP...

    1. (linguistics) Of a part of a sentence: providing new information regarding the current theme.

    2. (Peircean semiotics) Of or pertaining to a sumisign.

      • Rhematic Indexical Sinsign: As an object of raw experience, a burst of unplanned hollering is a rhematic indexical sinsign: it directs attention to the object which caused the presence of the sign […]. - 1995, Victorino...
      • [Charles Sanders] Peirce argues that common and proper nouns function typically as indices, whereas verbs and adjectives are typically icons and rhemes (MS 516:39). The noun camel is a rhematic index when it is...
  2. Of or pertaining to word formation.
  3. In Coleridge's work: relating to the arrangement of words into sentences clearly.
  4. Having a verb for its base; derived from a verb.
    • rhematic adjectives
    • Passive rhematic adjectives ending in -able […] - 1877, Fitzedward Hall, On English Adjectives in -able, with Special References to Reliable, London: Trübner, →OCLC, page 47:
    • Emotion may sometimes cause the speaker to adopt a marked sequence, and the rhematic adjective will then appear in sentence-initial position. - 1976, Patrick David Teskey, Theme and Rheme in Spanish and English...

Origin

From Ancient Greek ῥηματικός (rhēmatikós, “verbal, pertaining to verbs”), from Ancient Greek ῥηματ- (rhēmat-), ῥῆμα (rhêma, “verb (grammar), word”) + -ικός (-ikós, “-ic; suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to, in the manner of’”).

Synonyms

verbal

Noun

  1. The provision of new information regarding the current theme.
    • Within a non-theme, transitionals cede to rhematics, the transition itself being lowest on the CD scale. - 1995, Francis P. Dinneen, “Different Constants”, in General Linguistics, Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University...
  2. In the work of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834): the doctrine or study of arranging words into sentences clearly.
    • The object of rhetoric is persuasion,—of logic, conviction,—of grammar, significancy. A fourth term is wanting, the rhematic, or logic of sentences. - 1830 September 23, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Logic”, in H[enry]...
    • He [Coleridge] establishes an opposition between Σύνταξις ῥημάτων or ῥηματική ("rhematic"), the art of joining words into sentences, and γραμματική ("grammar"), which in its derivation from γράμμα (a letter, written...

Forms

rhematics