英语学习者作文句法复杂性变化研究

Syntactic complexity in EFL learners' essays:A multidimensional perspective

本文按照年级和作文水平分4组横向考察了英语学习者作文句法复杂性的变化模式。句法复杂性包括单位长度和子句密度或内嵌度两类。单位长度用T单位长度和子句长度指标测量;子句密度用T单位复杂性比率和从属句比率指标测量。研究表明,学习者的长度指标在1-2年级阶段增长最快,其后的变化呈先降后升之势,但增减幅度不大;密度指标在2年级达到峰值,但前后变化幅度很小,没有明显的发展迹象。学习者作文的长度指标随作文水平呈线性增长,唯邻近组之间总体上增幅不大;密度指标随作文水平的变化与随年级的变化基本相同,只是在3-4年级之间有略降,而中高-高级作文水平组之间有略升的趋势。与母语者作文对比后发现,学习者作文的长度指标增长较快,但密度指标的发展明显不足,两类指标的发展表现出不平衡性。

This paper reports a cross-sectional study of the changing patterns of syntactic complexity in the essays by EFL learners across 4 grades and 4 writing quality levels. Syntactic complexity is categorized into unit length,measured by T-unit length and clause length,and clausal density or degree of embeddedness,measured by T-unit complexity ratio and dependent clause ratio. The study reveals that the learners' length indexes witness the most rapid increase from Grade 1 to Grade 2,followed by a small fall in Grade 3 and a small rise in Grade 4,and that their density indexes reach the peak values in Grade 2,which decline marginally in the other grades,showing no sign of significant increase. In comparison,the learners' length indexes increase in a linear relation to writing quality level with a small change in most of the adjacent levels while their density indexes change across the writing quality levels roughly in the same way as they do across the grades despite a fall from Grade 3 to Grade 4 and a small rise from the mid-high writing quality level to the high one. The learners' length indexes,as compared to the native speakers',are in rapid growth while their density indexes are underdeveloped,a clear sign of unba^lanced development in their length indexes and density indexes.