Thematic Structure and Para-Syntax: Arabic as a Case Study (Routledge Studies in Arabic Linguistics) - Softcover

Dickins, James

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1032400404 ISBN 13: 9781032400402

Publisher: Routledge, 2022

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

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

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1032400404
• ISBN 13: 9781032400402
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176