The Concept of Theme and Rheme in Children Code Switching

Abstract

This paper is aimed to discuss about the concept of Theme and Rheme in relation with children code switching study case at Bale Lumbung Residence, district Labuapi. Theme and Rheme was firstly introduced by M.A.K Halliday in 1985. The reason why those terms are used in this study due to they are considered more appropriate in the present framework rather than Topic and Comment as what some grammarians used earlier. Considering Theme and Rheme as newer approach in analyzing a message, so those are relevant to measure the content of code switching. Data was taken ethnographically by recording and interviewing technique in this descriptive qualitative research. The collected data was analyzed by descriptive qualitative method through four steps, i,e. data reduction, data description, data grouping, and conclusion. The results of this study show that firstly, theme and rheme are found in children Sasak – Indonesian code switching. Secondly, code switching is used as communication strategy, to show their local identity, and to confirm that they are skilled in terms of use two languages within a communicative event.