COHESION AND THEMATIC STRUCTURE: A SFL-BASED ANALYSIS OF ACADEMIC ABSTRACTS Didiê Ana Ceni DENARDI (Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná/Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina) Saionara GREGGIO (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina/CAPES) Adriana Kuerten DELLAGNELLO (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina) Gloria GIL (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina) ABSTRACT: The cohesive development of texts depend, among other factors, on their thematic organization. In this vein, we propose to discuss the thematic structure of academic abstracts in the light of Systemic Functional Linguistics (HALLIDAY, 1985, 1994) in order to verify how this structure contributes, either positively or negatively, to the construction of cohesion. As such, this study was guided by three main purposes, namely: a) to investigate the elements that constitute the Theme and Rheme of the clauses, b) to verify how the thematic structure in each abstract is built up, and c) to check whether the thematic analysis reveals any positive or negative implications concerning the text texture. The results indicate that (a) in the analyzed abstracts there is a predominance of declarative and topical unmarked Themes, (b) the thematic organization found is typical from the zig-zag pattern, thus introducing new information in every new clause and as such contributing to the achievement of the text information development, and (c) the thematic elements, Theme and Rheme, succeed each other between the clauses, hence promoting cohesion and coherence to the abstracts and contributing positively to their texture. KEYWORDS: Systemic Functional Linguistics; thematic structure; academic abstracts; cohesion. 1. Introduction Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) is an approach which has helped linguists to analyze and explain “how meanings are made in everyday linguistic interactions” (EGGINS, 1994, p. 1). This approach has increasingly been recognized due to it provides “a very useful theoretical and analytical framework for exploring and explaining how texts mean” (ibid, p. 307). The systemic approach focuses mainly on the analysis of authentic products of social interaction, that is, on the analysis of texts, in order to “understand the quality of texts: why a text means what it does, and why it is valued as it is” (ibid, p.1). In this article, we will analyze the Thematic structure of two research article abstracts, (from now on, abstracts) in the light of Systemic Functional Grammar (HALLIDAY, 1985, 1994). A study of the Thematic structure involves the analysis of “the structural configurations by which the clause is organized as a message”, hence the Thematic organization plays an important role in the text since it “contributes to the cohesive development of a text” (EGGINS, 1994, p. 271). Our purpose in making the analysis of the Thematic structure of abstracts in the light of Systemic Functional approach is to investigate: a) to investigate the elements that constitute the Theme and Rheme of the clauses, b) to verify how the thematic structure in each abstract is built up, and c) to check whether the thematic analysis reveals any positive or negative implications concerning the text texture