| Syntactic complexity is a useful benchmark for predicting writers’ language competence,in which noun phrase complexity is an important indicator.However,most studies look into linguistic features for researching language complexity,overlooking the connection between linguistic features and their rhetorical functions.Through combining analysis of linguistic features and their rhetorical functions,the present study explores the developmental features of noun phrase complexity between the Master’s theses and doctoral dissertations of applied linguistics.Data consists of 60 abstracts of MA theses and Ph D dissertations in applied linguistics.Drawing on existing analytical frameworks in respect to developmental stages of noun phrase complexity and rhetorical moves in abstracts,the study yields the results as follows.With regard to linguistic features,compared with the MA group,the Ph D group uses significantly more noun,possessive case,relative clause as modifiers and significantly less complement as modifiers.According to the developmental stages proposed by Biber et al.(2011),complement indicates a high level of noun phrase complexity,while the other three(i.e.,noun,possessive case,relative clause)indicate a relatively low and middle level of noun phrase complexity.The results seem to suggest that second language writers with more research writing experience do not necessarily use more complex linguistic features in their academic writing.With regard to the use of noun phrase modifiers in respective rhetorical moves,first,for both MA and Ph D groups,the most frequently used noun phrase modifiers are adjective,noun and prepositional phrase as modifiers.In the Introduction Move,no significant difference was found in the use of all modifiers.Second,the two groups differ significantly in using the following features: 1)noun and complement as modifiers in the Purpose Move;2)prepositional phrase as modifiers in the Methods Move;3)noun,possessive case and participle as modifiers in the Results Move;5)prepositional phrase and complement as modifiers in the Conclusion Move.Third,by placing the four types of modifiers most prominently used by the two groups into each rhetorical move,the result shows that: 1)the Ph D group uses significantly more noun as modifiers in the Purpose Move and the Results Move;2)the Ph D group uses significantly more possessive case as modifiers in the Results Move;3)the Ph D group uses significantly less complement as modifiers in the Purpose Move and the Conclusion Move;4)no significant difference was found across moves for relative clause as modifiers.The results seem to suggest that,the more experience the writers gain,the more likely their use of linguistic features meet the rhetorical functions of each move,and the more likely their linguistic complexity indicates their awareness of academic genre conventions.By exploring linguistic complexity through a combined analysis of linguistic features and their rhetorical functions in respective moves in graduate students’ thesis writing of abstracts,this study may shed some light on researching language development in second language writing.The study also has some implications for instructing how to write the abstract in academic genres. |
