Thematic Structure and Para-Syntax: Arabic as a Case Study Arabic as a Case Study

Thematic Structure and Para-Syntax: Arabic as a Case Study presents a structural analysis of Arabic, providing an alternative to the traditional notions of theme and rheme.Taking Arabic as a case study, this book claims that approaches to thematic structure propounded in universalist linguistic theories, of which Hallidayan systemic functional linguistics is taken as an illustrative example, are profoundly wrong. It argues that in order to produce an analysis of thematic structure and similar phenomena which is not undermined by its own theoretical presuppositions, it is necessary to remove such notions from the domain of linguistic and semiotic theory. The book initially focuses on Sudanese Arabic, because this allows for a beautifully clear exposition of general principles, before applying these principles to Modern Standard Arabic, and some other Arabic varieties.This book will be of interest to scholars in Arabic linguistics, linguistic theory, and information structure.

Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Signs, syntax, para-syntax, theme and rheme2.1 Introduction2.2 Signs2.3 Grammar (morphology and syntax) as sign-level analysis2.4 Syntax and para-syntaxChapter 3: Issues in defining ‘theme’3.1 Introduction3.2 Theme as starting point of the utteranceChapter 4: Recursion4.1 Introduction4.2 RecursionChapter 5: Summary of arguments so farChapter 6: Traditional Arabic grammar analysis of Arabic clause structure6.1 Introduction6.2 Traditional Arabic grammar analysis of Arabic clause structureChapter 7: Peri/Thema-Nuc/Rhema analysis of Standard Arabic7.1 Introduction7.2 Application of Peri/Thema-Nuc/Rhema analysis to Standard Arabic7.3 Comparison with Baker’s (2011) analysis of Standard Arabic7.4 Nuc/Rhema-markers and Peri/Thema-markers in Standard Arabic7.5 A comparison with Arabic dialects and other languagesChapter 8: Phrase-structural para-syntax in Arabic: beyond theme and rheme8.1 Introduction8.2 Initiality as non-thematic discourse marker in Arabic8.3 Initiality as non-thematic discourse marker: Standard Arabic compared to other languagesChapter 9: Phrase-structural para-syntactic notions vs. (real) semantic notions9.1 Introduction9.2 The necessity of separating phrase-structural para-syntactic from (real) semantic notionsChapter 10: Distinguishing syntax from para-syntax10.1 Introduction10.2 The necessity of distinguishing syntax from para-syntax in Standard ArabicChapter 11: ConclusionsTechnical Appendix: EndnotesReferencesIndex

James Dickins is Professor of Arabic at the University of Leeds.