不同颗粒度句法复杂度指标与写作质量关系对比研究

The Relationship between Syntactic Complexity and L2 Chinese Writing Quality: Large-grained Vs. Fine-grained Indices

本文以80名中级水平汉语学习者产出的记叙文和议论文写作文本为研究对象,考察不同颗粒度句法复杂度测量指标对不同文体写作质量的影响。研究发现,在记叙文和议论文两种文体中,粗粒度指标(话题链数量、话题链分句总数、零形成分数量)与写作评分相关均不显著,细粒度指标复杂名词短语比率可以解释记叙文写作成绩总变异的23.3%,名词前复杂修饰语总长度可以解释议论文写作成绩总变异的18.8%,二者均达到中等效应量。该结论证明了与粗粒度指标相比,名词短语复杂度细粒度指标对记叙文和议论文写作评分的预测更有效。文章还对写作教学中短语层面的教学提供了相应建议。

This article examined the relationship of large-grained and fine-grained syntactic complexity indices to second language(L2)Chinese writing quality,using a corpus of narrative and argumentative essays produced by 80 intermediate Chinese as a second language learners.The results reveal that the three large-grained indices considered,namely,the number of topic chains,the number of clauses in topic chains,and the number of empty categories in topic chains,did not significantly correlate with writing scores of either genre.One fine-grained index,namely,complex noun phrase ratio,accounted for 23.3%of the variance in narrative essay scores,and another finegrained index,namely,the total length of all complex premodifiers,explained 18.8%of the variance in argumentative essay scores,both reaching medium effect sizes.These findings show that fine-grained indices of noun phrase complexity are stronger predictors of the quality of both genres of L2 Chinese writing than large-grained indices.The implications of our findings for the teaching of phraseology in L2 Chinese writing classrooms are discussed.