A Theme-Rheme Analysis of Exclamatives and Clause Typology in English and Arabic

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to offer a theme-rheme typology of English and Arabic clauses with exclamatives in focus. This is done by investigating the theme-rheme organization of all clause types in English and Arabic and showing that a three-feature system can help provide two different typologies of clauses in both languages. It is shown that a (theme-initial, rheme-initial) feature system is not enough a system and that a third feature i.e. (transition-initial) is needed for such a task. It is also shown that in English, the features (trans-final, theme-final) are needed to distinguish between two theme-initial types of clauses. It is also shown that in Arabic the same two features, i.e. (trans-final, theme-final), are needed to make a distinction between two different types of clauses. The analysis reflects the differences and similarities between clause types (if any) between the two languages in question..