ABSTRACT
Para-syntactic recursion is a feature of the sign level, the maximally transparent realisation of this in phonology being para-phonotactic recursion. Word order seems to have a sign status in Arabic which is independent of both phrase-structural para-syntactic features and intonation features. It is, accordingly, apparently para-syntactic but not phrase-structural. In Sudanese Arabic there is a correlation between primary accent and communicative/semantic centrality. This correlation operates independently of syntactic structure: it is not therefore simply a realisation of syntactic features. Because this semiotic identity operates independently – and ‘beyond’ – syntax, it must be regarded as an aspect of para-syntax. This aspect of para-syntax is phrase-structural.
