A Study Of Semantic Complexity In L2 Writings From The Perspective Of Grammatical Metaphor

According to Halliday and Matthiessen(2004),semantic complexity,a quality of language production,is a reflection of both language development and communicative appropriateness,which is motivated by different kinds of communicative goals that different kinds of meanings or complex contents within discourse are delivered.And grammatical metaphor is a crucial measure of semantic complexity,which is resulting from the interaction between semantics and lexicogrammar.Recent evidences suggest that so far there is little published data about semantic complexity in L2 writings whether at home or abroad.Semantic complexity and syntactic complexity are two primary components of linguistic complexity,however,the majority of previous studies have focused on syntactic complexity in L2 writings(Mazgutova&Kormos,2015;Lei Lei,2017;Wu Xue,2017);by contrast,very little attention has been paid to the role of semantic complexity,particularly those detailed investigations of semantic complexity in L2 writings from the perspective of grammatical metaphor(GM).In addition,a few studies related to semantic complexity also have the limitations that research materials are rarer.Therefore,the present research casts a new light on the exploration of linguistic complexity,which seeks to conduct a corpus-based study of semantic complexity in L2 writings from the perspective of GM;meanwhile,the corpus tool contributes to providing authentic,objective and comprehensive empirical-data for this research.Data for this study are selected from Written English Corpus of Chinese Learners 2.0(Wen et al.,2008),which consist of 200 argumentative English writings totally written by English majors.And both quantitative and qualitative methods are employed to investigate semantic complexity in L2 writings,particularly speaking,in relation to the quantitative analysis,one-way ANOVA and independent-samples t test are used to examine the differences in the degree of semantic complexity in L2 writings of different grades,different composition levels and different distances in field and tenor;with regard to the qualitative analysis,the present research sets out to explore how GMs deploy ideational and textual functions for the sake of stimulating the development of semantic complexity in L2 writings.The major findings are presented as in the following:1)there is no significant difference in the degree of semantic complexity in L2 writings between neighboring grades,while the degree of semantic complexity in English writings takes on a gradual growth with the increase of grades.2)A significant difference in the degree of semantic complexity in English writings of different composition levels exists indeed,that is to say,the degree of semantic complexity at the high-rated composition level is much higher than that of low-rated compositions;meanwhile,the degree of semantic complexity augments obviously along with the improvement of composition levels.3)there exists a significant difference in the degree of semantic complexity in L2 writings of different distances in field and tenor,particularly speaking,the degree of semantic complexity in English writings of greater distance in field and tenor increases more rapidly than that of English writings of less distance in field and tenor;moreover,the degree of semantic complexity in L2 writings rises gradually with the elevation of distance in field and tenor.4)GM is a powerful instrument in the analysis of semantic complexity in English writings,which allows English writers to reconstrue concrete individual experiences into abstract notions by virtue of ideational function and to configure these concepts into a cohesive line of reasoning in their writings by means of textual function.And disruptions between metaphorical and congruent forms have increased the potentials of more and complex language use,which has unfolded the informational density and semantic density of GM,thus the degree of semantic complexity in writings is improved during this process.But quantitative and qualitative analyses indicate that some problems still exist in Chinese English learners'writings:relatively rarer GM occurrence in writings and redundant meaning accumulation of GM.On the basis of the results mentioned above,Chinese English learners still need to elevate the competence of complex meaning-making in English writings through appropriate GM use in accordance with the requirements of context and content,which is conducive to delivering ideational and textual meanings and strengthening the depth of content as well as the enhancement of semantic complexity in L2 writings.