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

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

• 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