Thematic Need in Verbal Sentence Structure

Abstract

The present study is concerned with the thematic concept of Arabic sentence. It is centered on the concept that the verbal sentence structure is in need of theme presence based on the idea that the Arabic sentence is thematic-based in terms of its structure and semantics. In addition, it argues that the Arabic syntax is related to theme rather than to an isolated sentence. Therefore, the verbal sentence needs to be examined as a theme rather than an isolated sentence because each part of the verbal sentence needs the other parts present in the theme. The presence of Complement creates the need for themes because it is an extension of the sentence itself which connects the sentence to the theme of the text. Therefore, it remains as an indispensable part of the structure of any sentence. It is also worth mentioning that the thematic need is present in the first part of the sentence and not the second one, which makes the sentence closely related to the theme itself. In addition, the meaning of the sentence itself is governed by the theme present in the text. It is, therefore, can be proposed that the Arabic syntax is a theme-based syntax rather than a sentence-based syntax. There are plenty of examples that support this idea such as the presence of referential elements, e.g. pronouns, demonstratives, relative pronouns etc. which may refer to elements inside or outside the sentence itself.