ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates that because a Peri/Thema in Standard Arabic may be either a predicand or an adverbial, it is necessary to have separate levels of syntax and para-syntax. A Peri/Thema–Nuc/Rhema structure may, for example, involve a predicand followed by a predicate, where typically the predicand corresponds to Peri/Thema and the predicate to Nuc/Rhema. However, it may also, for example, involve a preposed adverbial followed by a verbal clause, where typically, the preposed adverbial corresponds to the Peri/Thema and the verbal clause to the Nuc/Rhema. These differential structurings between syntax and para-syntax make it impossible to have only one phrase-structural level of analysis, that of syntax, and require a second structural level of analysis, that of phrase-structural para-syntax.
