A Study on the Thematic Structures of English Headline News

Abstract

This paper, based on Halliday’s thematic theories, analyses the distributions of thematic structures of 20 headline news in 2020. The results present that simple themes are more frequently adopted than multiple themes. While among the simple themes, the proper names and prepositional phrases are more common. Besides, the proper names are characterized by internationalization. But interpersonal theme is not shown in the news. This study has positive impacts on English learners’ understanding English news from the perspective of the clause.