This paper is concerned with thematization and Theme-Rheme patterning in journal articles written in Indonesian. Eight journal articles in the fields of biology, economics, social science, and language were analysed to find out how their textual meaning was built from the points of view of Theme selection and Theme development. From Theme selection, it is evident that the distribution of Theme types does contribute to the texts’ textual meaning, but it also contributes peripherally to their ideational meaning. Whereas ideationally, Theme selection in the texts shows the mapping of the domains of knowledge presented, textually, it shows the characteristics of written texts. Similarly, the texts tend to be more oriented to connecting events at the clause level rather than organizing ideas at the discourse level. On the other hand, from Theme development, it can be identified that the patterns of Theme-Rheme ideationally border the scope of knowledge in the texts under discussion, and textually create cohesiveness.
Keywords: thematization, theme, rheme, textual, ideational
