A Study On The Relevance Between Lexical Semantic Network And Language Complexity In The Writing Of Chinese College Students

Lexical semantic network is the core structure of the mental lexicon,and it plays an intermediary role in linking different vocabulary knowledge layers(Feng,2015).Many studies at home and abroad have shown that lexical semantic network is positively correlated with language output ability(Lv,2004;Zareva,2005;Zhang,2005;Shao,2007).Language complexity,an indispensable element of language ability,includes syntactic complexity and lexical complexity.Although many domestic and foreign scholars have studied the second language complexity in writing,some of them just pay attention to the external factors that affect the complexity of second language writing,such as task complexity,time limiting and other factors.Up to now,few scholars have explored the internal factors that affect language complexity.This study,using both quantitative and qualitative researching methods,aims to reveal the relationship between the development level of lexical semantic network and the ability of language production.First,theoretically,this study involves two aspects of lexical representation and language application,which is conducive to unveiling the psychological mechanism of language complexity from the perspective of lexical representation and applying the results of psycholinguistic research to the study of language acquisition.Secondly,this study can provide inspiration for teachers to improve the language complexity of students’ composition in teaching,and provide new ideas for predicting the language output ability of learners.This study randomly selects 100 freshmen from a university directly under the Ministry of Education as the research object.These subjects complete the lexical semantic network tests and the standardized time-limited propositional composition test within the specified time.After the tests are completed,the learners’ syntactic complexity and lexical complexity of compositions are measured by using the second language syntactic complexity analyzer and lexical complexity analyzer developed by Dr.Xiaofei Lu’s team from the University of Pennsylvania.Finally,Pearson correlation analysis is performed on the learners’ language complexity data and lexical semantic network test data.The research results show that the development level of Chinese college students’ lexical semantic network is positively related to the language complexity in compositions.The specific manifestations are as follows: first,the development level of lexical semantic network syntagmatic relation is positively related to the syntactic complexity in compositions,which is mainly reflected in the number of coordinate phrases per clause(CP / C)and the number of coordinate phrases per T-unit(CP / T);Second,the development level of lexical semantic network paradigmatic relation is positively correlated with the lexical complexity in compositions,which is mainly reflected in Lexical Density(LD),Lexical Sophistication-II(LS2),Type-Token Ratio(TTR),Bilogarithmic TTR(Log TTR),Uber Index(Uber:)and Verb Variation-I(VV1).The research findings in this study help deepen learners ’ understanding of the semantic network’s structure and function,and provide new ideas for teachers to increase the language complexity of students’ compositions.At the same time,we can predict learners’ language level by measuring learner’s lexical semantic network development.