Measures Of Syntactic Complexity Research Articles

Clausal and phrasal complexity in research articles published in well-established and predatory journals

Predatory publishing has attracted much scholarly attention recently, but little is known about the actual material published in predatory journals. In this paper, we address this gap focusing on syntactic complexity. Using both traditional syntactic complexity measures and more fine-grained indices of phrasal and clausal complexity, the study explores the similarities and differences between two corpora consisting of 220 research articles drawn from two comparable journals in the discipline of Political Science, one purportedly predatory and one top-ranking. The results show that the articles look similar in many respects (e.g., mean length of sentences/T-units, number of T-units per sentence). Differences are found in more fine-grained indices such as clausal complements, adverbial clauses, and noun phrases with noun premodifiers, which are associated with discipline-specific rhetorical and ideational functions. The study demonstrates the potential of linguistic analyses in contributing to our understanding of predatory publishing as a complex phenomenon.

Lexical Richness and Syntactic Complexity as Predictors of Academic Writing Performance

Language researchers have long looked for ways to investigate the connection between textual language use and the development of both L1 and L2 writing. The purpose of this research study is to examine the predictors of writing quality in terms of lexical richness and syntactic complexity in academic writing. The study was based on a hypothesis that the lexical sophistication and the mean length T-unit (MLTU) are the indicators of writing quality. A corpus of 50 article abstracts written by Tunisian scholars was analyzed and scored using a holistic scoring rubric that indicates writing quality (test of written English), and then regressed against the chosen measures of lexical richness and syntactic complexity. The findings revealed that lexical sophistication GSL-1 1000 words is the indicator of writing quality. For syntactic complexity, findings showed that the mean length T-unit (MLTU) is not a good predictor of academic writing. However, the clause per T-unit (C/TU) indicated a strong correlation with writing quality. Furthermore, the ability to use sophisticated vocabulary rather than grammatical knowledge was an effective predictor of academic writing. The results of this research can help EFL scholars improve the quality of their writing so they can employ it in academic writing.

Syntactic complexity of interpreted, L2 and L1 speech: A constrained language perspective

This study investigates the differences in syntactic complexity among three language varieties: interpreted speech, nonnative English (L2) speech, and native English (L1) speech. The examination was conducted through the evaluation of 14 measures across five subconstructs: the length of the production unit, the amount of subordination, the amount of coordination, phrasal sophistication, and overall sentence complexity. We used a self-compiled comparable corpus of these three language varieties and tested the simplification hypothesis under the framework of constrained language. Our results showed that the two spoken constrained varieties, interpreted speech and L2 speech, had significantly lower scores on most of the syntactic complexity measures compared to non-constrained L1 speech. However, there was no consistent pattern between the two constrained varieties. Specifically, interpreted speech had longer language units and more coordination than L2 speech, which contained more subordination. Overall, this study provides new insights for simplification research by examining syntactic complexity measures from a constrained language perspective.

A corpus-based study of syntactic complexity of translated and non-translated chairman’s statements

The chairman’s statement of the corporate annual report plays an important role in informing the decision-making of investors. Thus, it is often targeted at an international audience. The present study compares the syntactic complexity of translated chairman’s statements (Chinese to English) and non-translated ones (English), to determine the role that translation plays in conveying the chairman’s message. The results show that translated chairman’s statements are significantly simpler in subordination as well as overall sentence complexity, using fewer verbal phrases and T-units than the non-translated ones. However, translated chairman’s statements have longer length of production units, use more coordinate phrases and complex nominals than their non-translated counterparts. The findings indicate that simplification exists in half of the 14 syntactic complexity measures, providing some evidence for the simplification universal. They also reveal that in addition to translation universals, social factors also affect the complexity level of translated and non-translated chairman’s statements. The findings of the present study contribute to a systematic understanding of syntactic features of translated and non-translated chairman’s statements, enrich the present knowledge of translation universals and provide pedagogical implications for translation teaching and training in the context of Chinese-English translation.

Syntactic complexity and connector use in the summary writing of L1 and L2 Canadian students

AbstractThe study compared the syntactic complexity and the use of logical connectors in summaries written in French by two groups of students: speakers of French as first language (L1) and peers in a French-immersion program (L2) from grade nine to university. Both L1 and L2 groups of university students demonstrated more general complexity in their written summaries than less mature writers. However, the use of phrasal elaboration was apparent just at the upper secondary and university levels with L1 students. Both groups generally tend to overuse causal connectors while underusing additive and adversative connectors compared to the author’s use in the source text. Yet both groups employ significantly more adversative connectors just at the post-secondary level. The only difference observed between L1 and L2 writers was in the diversity of connector words used in the summary, with the former group using a richer, more diverse vocabulary. Several measures for succinctness differentiated L1 and L2 students in early secondary with the latter group condensing the source text less than L1 students. Correlation analysis suggested that many measures of syntactic complexity and connector use are inextricably linked.

Assessing the writing quality of English research articles based on absolute and relative measures of syntactic complexity

Prediction of writing quality based on various linguistic features has greatly supported writing assessment in academic contexts. Research article (RA) is an important academic genre widely taught and assessed in EAP (English for Academic Purposes) writing courses, but there is little research exploring the assessment of RA writing quality on the basis of linguistic features, which may have the potential to assist teachers’ evaluation of students’ RA drafts. The present study aims to explore whether features of syntactic complexity can effectively predict RA writing quality. To represent syntactic complexity as a multidimensional construct, we employed traditional absolute measures and the newly proposed relative measures related to the use of verb argument constructions (VACs). Robust predictors of writing quality were identified at both the whole RA level and the part-genre level. It is found that VAC-based measures are more useful for indexing the writing quality of RAs at whole text level, while absolute measures have a stronger predictive power at part-genre level. Our research also shows that the relationships between writing quality and syntactic complexity are subject to part-genre variation. Implications for language teaching and assessment in the EAP context are discussed.

Linguistic Features of Korean EFL Learners’ Writing: Based on Writing Quality and Genre

The present study examines the linguistic features of Korean college students’ English writings in terms of their writing quality and genre. Forty-eight Korean college students took part in the study, and their writing samples, comprised of narrative and exposition compositions, were collected to analyze on the basis of fluency and syntactic complexity. A total of 95 writings were entered into the computer program L2 syntactic complexity analyzer (L2SCA), and then statistical analyses such as ANOVA and t-test were performed to investigate how the linguistic features of the participants’ English writings are different depending on their writing quality and genre. The results showed that participants’ writing quality had a statistically significant impact on the text length of their writings, while it did not have a statistically significant effect on 13 measures out of 14 syntactic complexity measures. However, the results of genre differences indicated that the genre of writing had a substantial impact on 15 measures including fluency and syntactic complexity in the participants’ writing. Based on the results, some implications on how English writing instruction can better help Korean learners develop their English writing skills are discussed in the end.

Task complexity, task repetition, and L2 writing complexity: exploring interactions in the TBLT domain

Abstract Considering the increasing application of task-based frameworks to second language (L2) writing research, there has been a pressing need to examine TBLT views on the interactions between task conceptualization, task performance, and L2 writing outcomes. To address this need, the present study was designed to explore the synergistic effects of task complexity and task repetition on different facets of syntactic complexity as a key construct of proficiency and development in L2 writing. In doing so, 96 ESL learners performed written argumentative task versions with varying cognitive complexity in a counterbalanced fashion and then complete a task difficulty questionnaire. Afterward, they repeated the tasks in the opposite order at a one-week interval. The essays were analyzed using fine-grained syntactic complexity measures (reported by Lu’s L2 syntactic complexity analyzer, 2010). Linear mixed-effects models indicated significant main effects of task complexity and task repetition on different facets of syntactic complexity with robust effect sizes. However, no significant interaction effect between task complexity and task repetition was observed. These findings provide a reliable and accurate understanding of how syntactic complexity plays a role in the current accounts of connections between task features, implementation variables, and L2 writing task performance.

A large-scale longitudinal study of syntactic complexity development in EFL writing: A mixed-effects model approach

This study examined the longitudinal development of syntactic complexity with a large-scale corpus of EFL (English as a foreign language) compositions written by the same group of 1081 intermediate Chinese university students over a time span of four consecutive semesters in two academic years. The compositions were analysed for the longitudinal trajectories of syntactic complexification over time and for proficiency level differences, and genre differences. It was found that length-based measures, measures of coordination, and those of phrasal sophistication significantly increased while measures of clausal subordination significantly decreased from the first to the fourth semesters. Interestingly, students’ writing style was found to become more formal and exhibited more prominent features of academic prose over time. Furthermore, students’ proficiency level and genre showed significant main effects on most of the syntactic complexity measures. Our findings complemented existing research on writing development patterns with large-scale and longitudinal evidence. Some possible explanations in relation to these findings were discussed. In addition, implications for teachers and researchers of EFL writing were offered.

Efficacy in linguistic characteristics: I‐CONECT project

AbstractBackgroundResearchers have documented ample evidence suggesting progressive decline in linguistic and syntactic abilities due to cognitive decline. Among measures of syntactic complexity derived from natural language processing (NLP) approaches, we hypothesized that the number of coordinated phrases (CPs, an indicator of sentence complexity) would improve from an intervention which intended to enhance cognitive function by providing social interactions through frequent video‐chats.MethodIn the I‐CONECT project, the experimental group engaged in a high dose of semi‐structured conversations (four times per week) via video‐chats, with additional weekly 10 minutes telephone check‐ins. The control group received only the weekly telephone check‐ins. We analyzed language samples derived from the weekly phone check‐ins (WPCs) in this study. WPCs mainly ask about social activities engaged by the participant during the previous week with some semi‐structured open‐ended questions. Out of 186 subjects who were randomized to the trial, 113 subjects had at least one recording of WPCs with sufficient recording quality during the 2nd, 3rd and 4th weeks of the intervention (baseline) and during the 3 weeks (i.e., 22, 23, 24th) before the month 6 (M6) assessments. We extracted the number of CPs from WPCs of 52 experimental (25 MCI, 27 normal) and 61 control (34 MCI, 27 normal) participants. We regressed CP scores at M6 on age, gender, years of education, the experimental (vs. control) group, controlling for baseline CP scores using a linear regression model.ResultAmong the MCI group, the experimental group’s CP scores were 0.60 points higher than the control group (p = 0.046) at M6, which is equivalent to over 10 years of age difference in CP scores (i.e., ‐0.055×10 = ‐0.55), controlling for covariates listed above (see Figure 1). Among those with normal cognition, we did not find any significant differences between the two groups at M6 (p = 0.414).ConclusionWe found that an indicator of sentence complexity improved among the experimental group compared with the control group among the MCI participants. Our results indicated that language measures are capable of tracking clinically meaningful changes in language samples capitalizing their potential use in clinical trials as automated outcome measures.

Marked distinctions in syntactic complexity: A case of second language university learners' and native speakers' syntactic constructions.

Existing research on syntactic complexity tends to examine diversity and complexity embedded in grammatical employments which may well be witnessed in formulations of different syntactic structures. Conceivably, the subject syntactic complexity seems to be exercised mostly by non-native speakers and writers. The present study employs pseudo-longitudinal data: essays written by undergraduate students in different levels collected at the same time. Hence, it aims at investigating the mechanism involved in the L2 production of L2 learners in terms of syntactic complexity by analyzing a corpus of non-native English-speaking learners. The research inquiry is mainly focused on investigation of significant differences in terms of syntactic complexity between writing of Japanese university students and that of native speakers, probing further into the particular dimension and level of difference. The study also traces marked variations in syntactic complexity employed by Japanese university students in different grades. Nagoya Interlanguage Corpus of English (NICE) developed by Sugiura in 2015 was employed to conduct the entire research proceedings. The corpus of the subject study comprises 339 essays written by L2 EFL learners studying in a Japanese university employing a judicious selection of quantitative measures of syntactic complexity. The results exhibited a considerable statistical difference between the writing of Japanese learners and native English writers. The findings of this study provide meaningful pedagogical implications for English teachers and textbook compilers. Japanese university students in higher grades are found to be employing more complicated and diverse syntactic structures. Conforming to the already conducted research studies with almost similar objectives, this study demonstrates the significance of using both general and more particular complexity metrics to assess syntactic development in L2.

Expository Discourse Production in School-Age Children across Two Scaffolded Tasks.

School-age children encounter expository discourse daily in the classroom, and skilled understanding and production of expository language is critical for academic success. The purpose of this study was to compare children's production of two types of expository discourse, generation and retell, while employing a scaffolded note-taking procedure to assist children in developing their samples. Twenty-six typically developing children, 9 to 12 years of age, participated in the study. For the expository generation task, children gave an explanation of a favorite activity, and for the retell task they viewed a video and provided an explanation of the information in the video. Overall, expository generation samples were longer and richer in content, but expository retell samples demonstrated greater lexical diversity. In addition, generation samples contained fewer grammatical errors than retell samples (trend), but measures of syntactic complexity, which were positively related across tasks, were not significantly different between sample types. Findings suggest that using a scaffolded procedure for supporting expository production resulted in (1) samples that were long enough for valid analysis of the children's language and (2) the production of utterances that, on average, were longer than reported in similar studies without scaffolding. The potential impact of comprehension on retell task performance is discussed.

Head and dependent marking and dependency length in possessive noun phrases: a typological study of morphological and syntactic complexity.

The interaction of morphosyntactic features has been of great interest in research on linguistic complexity. In this paper we approach such interactions in possessive noun phrases. First, we study the interaction of head marking and dependent marking in this domain with typological feature data and with multilingual corpus data. The data suggest that there is a clear inverse relationship between head and dependent marking in possessive noun phrases in terms of complexity. The result points to evidence on complexity trade-offs and to productive integration of typological and corpus-based approaches. Second, we explore whether zero versus overt morphological marking as a measure of morphological complexity affects dependency length as a measure of syntactic complexity. Data from multilingual corpora suggest that there is no cross-linguistic trend between these measures in possessive noun phrases.

Measurement Properties of Mean Length of Utterance in School-Age Children.

Mean length of utterance (MLU) is one of the most widely reported measures of syntactic development in the developmental literature, but its responsiveness in young school-age children's language has been questioned, and it has been shown to correlate with nonsyntactic measures. This study tested the extent to which MLU shows measurement properties of responsiveness and construct validity when applied to language elicited from elementary school children. Thirty-two typically developing children in two age groups (5 and 8 years) provided four short language samples each. Language samples were elicited in a question-answer context and a narrative context. MLU was calculated with both morpheme and word counts. Other established measures of syntactic complexity (clausal density [CD], developmental level [D-Level], mean length of clause [MLC]) and lexical diversity (lexical density, moving-average type-token ratio, number of different words) were also calculated. Linear mixed-effects analyses revealed that MLU varied systematically with discourse context and children's age group. The syntactic measures, CD and MLC, were found to vary systematically with MLU. None of the lexical diversity measures varied systematically with MLU. Results suggest that MLU is a responsive and valid measure of children's syntactic development across age and discourse context during the early school-age years.

Unpacking the contribution of linguistic features to graph writing quality: An analytic scoring approach

Previous research on L2 writing quality has mostly focused on independent writing, and there is little empirical work on integrated writing quality. Furthermore, the majority of studies on L2 writing quality have adopted holistic scoring for writing assessment. Therefore, the purpose of this exploratory research was to investigate the contribution of linguistic features, i.e. measures of syntactic complexity, lexical complexity, cohesion, and linguistic accuracy, to scores of content, organization, and language use in graph writing, which is far less researched. Two hundred and forty-three undergraduate Iranian students described a graph with few visual chunks and a familiar topic. The findings of stepwise regression revealed that content nominals per clause and lexical diversity contributed to content and language use scores, linguistic accuracy could predict the scores of organization and language use, and contrastive and temporal connectives and temporal cohesion were predictive of the scores in all the three subscales. Moreover, some important discrepancies were observed between the raters’ scores to a subscale and its linguistic predictors. Implications for writing research, pedagogy, and assessment are offered. • Linguistic features contribute to the subscales of graph writing in different ways. • Complex nominals per clause predicted content and language use scores. • Lexical diversity was the strongest predictor of content scores. • Cohesion contributed to all the three subscales. • Linguistic accuracy was the best predictor of language use scores.

Assessing linguistic complexity and register flexibility in advanced second language learners

Abstract The aim of the present study is twofold: (1) to assess the degree of register flexibility in advanced second language (L2) learners of English and (2) to determine whether and to what extent this flexibility is impacted by inter-individual variability in experiential factors and personality traits. Register flexibility is quantitatively measured as the degree of differentiation in the use of linguistic complexity – gauged by a range of lexical, syntactic, and information-theoretic complexity measures – across three writing tasks. At the methodological level, we aim to demonstrate how a corpus-based approach combined with natural language processing (NLP) techniques and a within-subjects design can be a valuable complement to experimental approaches to language adaptation.

Prewriting in Voice Chat: Exploring the Effects of Collaborative Prewriting on EFL Learners’ Performance

Addressing the lack of studies on L2 online and collaborative prewriting, this study examines L2 collaborative prewriting through voice chat. It explores the effects of an online prewriting condition (individual vs collaborative) on performance in subsequent individual writing as assessed by text length, accuracy, complexity, and analytical rating scales of content, organization, and language. One hundred and twenty-six Thai university students were divided into a control (individual prewriting) group and an experimental (collaborative prewriting) group. The utilized prewriting task was structured, focusing on ideas generation, selection, and organization, and the main task was problem-solution paragraph writing. Independent-sample t-tests revealed that accuracy was comparable across groups; however, the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group on text length, some lexical and syntactic complexity measures, and all rating scores, and the effect size concerning text length was large. Overall, these findings suggest potential benefits of collaboration in voice-chat prewriting.

Fine-grained measures of syntactic complexity in the discussion section of research articles: The effect of discipline and language background

Previous research on syntactic complexity in academic writing has mostly examined traditional large-grained indices to capture this construct, measuring complexity at clause or sentence level. However, due to the heavier reliance of academic writing on complex noun phrases, these traditional indices of syntactic complexity are not adequate for operationalizing this linguistic feature in academic writing. Therefore, the present research used fine-grained phrasal and clausal indices to investigate syntactic complexity in the discussion section of research articles (RAs) in three disciplines, namely applied linguistics, chemistry, and economics. In addition, texts from two groups of writers, L1-English authors and L2-English authors, were compared with respect to clausal and phrasal indices. Nine indices of clausal complexity and thirteen indices of phrasal complexity were examined. The findings revealed significant disciplinary differences in both types of complexity. It was found that in clausal measures, applied linguistics and economics discussions were generally more complex than those of chemistry, while in phrasal measures chemistry texts were generally more complex than those of applied linguistics and economics. However, the picture related to L1 vs. L2 differences was not that clear. The results are discussed and theoretical and pedagogical implications are offered.

Tell or Retell? The Role of Task and Language in Spanish-English Narrative Microstructure Performance.

This study examined performance of dual language learners (DLLs) on Spanish- and English-language narrative story retells and unique tells. Transcription and analysis focused on comparisons of common microstructural language sample measures in Spanish and English across tasks. Each language sample measure was evaluated for its possible convergence with norm-referenced standardized assessments for DLL children. Spanish-English DLLs (N = 133) enrolled in English-only kindergarten or first-grade classrooms completed two-language sample tasks (one in each language), which were transcribed and analyzed using Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (Miller & Iglesias, 2017) for measures of syntactic complexity (mean length of utterance [MLU] in words), lexical diversity (number of different words [NDW]), and grammaticality (percent grammatical utterances [PGU]). Students also completed a norm-referenced sentence repetition task (Peña et al., 2014) and expressive vocabulary assessment (Martin, 2013). Comparison of story retells and unique stories revealed similar performance on MLU, NDW, and PGU across elicitation techniques, with one exception: NDW in Spanish was higher in the story retell condition. Predictive models revealed several differences in the relations between the microstructure measures and norm-referenced language measures by elicitation technique, although neither context demonstrated a consistent advantage across all metrics. Measures derived from story retells and unique tells offer practical findings for speech-language pathologists and other educators to use in assessment of early grade DLLs. This work increases knowledge of procedural differences across narrative assessments and their influence on language variables, supporting school-based speech-language pathologists in making assessment decisions for DLLs on their caseload. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.19191278.

Enhancing Syntactic Complexity in L2 Chinese Writing: Effects of Form-Focused Instruction on the Chinese Topic Chain.

Syntactic complexity, as one aspect of the Complexity, Accuracy and Fluency (CAF) model, is integral to the writing ability of second language (L2) learners. Previous research found that T-unit-based measures of syntactic complexity in writing tasks of English as a second language (ESL) learners increased with more instruction, yet it remains unclear whether the same can be observed in Chinese as a second language (CSL) learners. To fill this gap, this study compared the development of syntactic complexity of a training group (N = 64) and a control group (N = 51), both composed of CSL students in a first-year Chinese course at a university in North America. While participants in the control group only participated in the regular course, the training group received an additional 10-week, explicit form-focused instruction (FFI) on the Chinese topic chain. Results on the posttest and delayed posttest show that the FFI on the topic chain had a positive and durable effect on the participants’ syntactic complexity; instructional intensity and feedback type may have influenced its effectiveness and durability. Characteristics of measures and task complexity may have affected the observation of syntactic complexity.