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 rheme

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Signs

2.3 Grammar (morphology and syntax) as sign-level analysis

2.4 Syntax and para-syntax

Chapter 3: Issues in defining ‘theme’

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Theme as starting point of the utterance

Chapter 4: Recursion

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Recursion

Chapter 5: Summary of arguments so far

Chapter 6: Traditional Arabic grammar analysis of Arabic clause structure

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Traditional Arabic grammar analysis of Arabic clause structure

Chapter 7: Peri/Thema-Nuc/Rhema analysis of Standard Arabic

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Application of Peri/Thema-Nuc/Rhema analysis to Standard Arabic

7.3 Comparison with Baker’s (2011) analysis of Standard Arabic

7.4 Nuc/Rhema-markers and Peri/Thema-markers in Standard Arabic

7.5 A comparison with Arabic dialects and other languages

Chapter 8: Phrase-structural para-syntax in Arabic: beyond theme and rheme

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Initiality as non-thematic discourse marker in Arabic

8.3 Initiality as non-thematic discourse marker: Standard Arabic compared to other languages

Chapter 9: Phrase-structural para-syntactic notions vs. (real) semantic notions

9.1 Introduction

9.2 The necessity of separating phrase-structural para-syntactic from (real) semantic notions

Chapter 10: Distinguishing syntax from para-syntax

10.1 Introduction

10.2 The necessity of distinguishing syntax from para-syntax in Standard Arabic

Chapter 11: Conclusions

Technical Appendix: Endnotes

References

Index