ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the Peri/Thema–Nuc/Rhema analysis of Standard Arabic. It aims to apply the current model to both simple and complex clauses in Standard Arabic. The chapter aims to compare the current Peri/Thema–Nuc/Rhema analysis with the Hallidayan-based theme-rheme analysis in Baker, arguing that the quite different analyses which Baker arrives at for an English text and its Arabic translation are a function, not of the nature of texts, but of the inadequacies of the model which Baker adopts, and showing that the model proposed in this book overcomes these inadequacies. In the Arabic translation, by contrast, the initial verbs are clearly not given. The main verb in each sentence in a narrative is most likely to describe what comes next. Assuming the narrative presents newsworthy – unknown – information to the reader, the verb is likely to express at least part of this new or unknown information.
