Textual functions of anastrophe from the point of view of thematic structure

In the course of teaching, we usually notice the following phenomenon: Our students can generally recognize a variety of anastrophe when reading, whereas they seldom employ the structure when writing. We attribute this to the fact that they only know the structure grammatically rather than functionally in text. Mainly based on Halliday's ThemeRheme theory, the present paper analyses in the first section the themes and rhemes of anastrophe, probes in the second section into its five textual functions, namely, emphasis, contrast, structural balance, strengthening in order and euphony. 