中外大学生英语议论文写作语言复杂度对比分析

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF LINGUISTIC COMPLEXITY OF CHINESE AND FOREIGN COLLEGE STUDENTS’ ENGLISH ARGUMENTATIVE WRITINGS

以中国学生万篇英语作文语料库(TECCL)和鲁汶英语本族语作文语料库(LOCNESS)中大学生英语议论文为研究对象,以词汇复杂度分析器(LCA)、句法复杂度分析器(L2SCA)、形态复杂度分析器(MCT)为研究工具,对比分析了中国大学生和英语本族语大学生英语议论文写作中词汇、句法、形态的复杂度。研究发现:(1)在词汇上,中国大学生词汇密度和词汇多样性较高,而词汇复杂性较低;(2)在句法上,两者平均子句长度相当,但中国大学生平均句子产出长度和T单位产出长度较短、从属子句较少;(3)在形态上,中国大学生动词形态复杂度显著低于英语本族语大学生,表现为一般过去时、现在完成时以及被动语态占比较小。

The lexical, syntactic and morphological complexity of English argumentative writings between Chinese college students and English native college students are analyzed by comparing the English argumentative writings of college students in the corpus of Ten-thousand English Compositions of Chinese Learners(TECCL) and the Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays(LOCNESS), and adopting the tools of Lexical Complexity Analyzer(LCA), L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer(L2 SCA) and Morphological Complexity Tool(MCT). Results show that(1) in terms of vocabulary, Chinese college students have higher levels of lexical density and variation, but they have a lower level of lexical sophistication than English native speakers;(2) in terms of syntax, the average length of clauses shows no difference between two groups of college students, but Chinese college students use a shorter average length of sentence, a shorter average length of T-unit, and fewer dependent clauses per clause;(3) in terms of morphology, Chinese college students have a significantly lower level of morphological complexity in verbs than native speakers, which is manifested in a smaller proportion in the uses of general past tense, present perfect tense and passive voice.