On the Characteristics of Noun Phrases in L2 EAP Writing

1、On the Characteristics of Noun Phrases in L2 EAP Writing【Abstract】ThispaperwillexaminetheChineseL2learnerscharacteristicsofnounphrasesintheirEAPwriting.TheresearchrevealsthatmoreproficientstudentsproducemorecomplexNPsintheiracademicwritingandtheproportionofNPswithpre-modifiersishigherthanthatwithpos

2、t-modifiers.【Keywords】nounphrases；EAPwriting；ChineseL2learners；modifiersI.IntroductionWhenstudentsenterintouniversities，theywillencounterwithawiderangeofchallengesanddifficulties.AlargeamountoftheseobstaclesincorporatebeingawareofthelinguisticfeaturesindifferentvarietiesofEnglish，etc.Totacklethesepr

3、oblems，theyneedtointerpretcomplexdiscourseindifferentregisters，suchasconversation，fiction，newsandacademicregisterBiberetal.，1999.AsBiber2020pointsout，mostuniversitiesfocusonindividualnarrationorpersonalopinioncompositionsanddoratherlittletocultivatestudentstodealwiththesewiderangeofregisters.Thefeat

4、uresofNounPhrasesintheseregistershavebeenidentified，including：phrasalmodifiersaremorecommonlyembeddedinNPsthaninconversation；andthefrequenciesoftheuseofNPsaremuchhigherinproficientstudentsthanthoseinlessproficientstudentsParkinsonandMusgrave，2020.ThesefeaturescanalsobeobservedinChineseL2：moreprofici

5、entstudentsproducedmorecomplexNPsintheiracademicwritingandtheproportionofNPswithpre-modifiersishigherthanthatwithpost-modifiers.II.NounphraseinEAPThefeaturesofNPsinacademicwritinghavebeenidentifiedinanumberofstudiesonwrittenregisters，suchasNPsaresignificantlymorecommonandpre-modifiersaremuchmorefreq

6、uentthanpost-modifiersinwriting.Buttherearestillsomecharacteristicsclarifyingacademicregister，whicharethatthefrequencyofNPsarethehighestinallregisters，theconstructionofNPsaremoreelaborated，thenotionsofNPsaremoreabstract，themeaningofNPsaremoreexplicit，andthestructureofNPsaremorecomplexBiberandGray，20

7、20.Thus，theincreasingdensityofitsstructureandmakethemmoreeconomicalParkinsonandMusgrave，2020.Furthermore，prepositionalphrasesaspost-modifiersareextremelycommoninacademicregisterupto80%ofpost-modifiers，whicharealmost7timesthanthoseinconversation.Innewsreportage，theproportionofprepositionalphrasesissl

8、ightlylessthanthatinacademicregisterBiberetal.，1999.Forotherpost-modifiersinacademicregister，theproportionofEDclausesisabout1thousandwordspermillion，whichisthelowest；INGclausesareabout2.5thousandwordspermillion；EDclausesareabout4thousandwordspermillionalmostthesameasappositives；relativeclausesareabo

9、ut11.5thousandwordsBiberetal.，1999.Comparerelativeclausesof11.5thousandwordswithprepositionalphrasesof70thousandwordpermillion，itiseasytoconcludethatnon-clausalphrasesaremorecommonthanclausalphraseinacademicregister.However，theaboveliteratureignoresthemostvitalstructuralfeaturesofNPsinacademicregist

10、erbecauseitselaborationheavilyreliesonphrasalratherthanclausal.NPswithpre-modifiersandpost-modifiersmayelaboratealargenumberofsentencesinacademicregisterBiberandGray，2020.Thesemodifiersprovidethewriterswithmorepossibilitiesofpackingandembeddingmoreextrainformationintotheheadnouns.Inthisway，itmightma

11、ketheNPsinformationmoreelaborated，thusincreasingthereadingspeedandboostingtheefficiencyofreadersunderstanding.III.NounphrasesinEAPL2writingAsnotedabove，professionalacademicwritingfeaturesmorecomplexNPs，morecompressedstructure，andmoreexplicitmeaning.Forstudents，especiallyL2students，theirabilitiestoha

12、ndlethesefeaturesbecomeincreasinglyimportant.Onepossiblereasonforthisisthatinthelasttwocenturies，thereisadramaticincreaseofNPswithmodifiers，andtheyareincreasinglyfrequentandproductiveinacademicregisterBiberandGray，2020.AsforL2academicwriting，thereisasignificantcorrelationbetweenL2literaryproficiency

13、andfrequencyofusecomplexNPsParkinsonandMusgrave，2020.ThereisalsoatendencythatthecomplexitiesofNPsaregrowinginbothnumberandtypeswiththedevelopmentofstudentsEnglishliteracyRavidandBerman，2020.Thus，thefrequencyofcomplexNPsisoneofareliableapproachtomeasuringL2academicwrittenlevel.ThedevelopmentofL2acade

14、micwritingfeaturesthetendencyfromcomplexclausestocomplexNPsBiberetal.，2020.Accordingtotheircomparisonof28grammaticalfeaturesbetweenconversationandL2academicwriting，NPsdevelopmentalstagesareproposed.ThehypothesizeddevelopmentindexforNPcomplexityinclude5stages：atthefirststage，L2featuresfinitecomplemen

15、tclauseswithoutanyNPs；atthesecondstage，itfeaturesNPswithadjectiveaspre-modifiers；atthethirdstage，itfeaturesNPswithnounsandpossessivenounsaspre-modifiersandOFphrasesandprepositionalphrasesaspost-modifiers；atthefourthstage，itfeaturesmoreNPwithnounsandpossessivenounsaspre-modifiersandprepositionalphras

16、esaspost-modifiersratherthanOFphrasetoexpressabstractconcepts；atthefifthstage，itfeaturesappositivesandmultipleprepositionalphrasesaspost-modifiersibid.IV.NounphrasesinChineseL2EAPwritingAssuggestedabove，lesscomplexnominalsaresignificantinlowerproficiencyofL2learnersacademicwritingandhighcomplexnomin

17、alsaresignificantinhigherproficiencylearners.ThisresultimpliesthatChineseL2learnersneedtoimprovetheabilitytoconstructcomplexNPsintheiracademicwritingwhentheydeveloptoadvancedproficiencylevels，whichmaybeoneofthemainissuesforthemLU，2020.However，thecapacityofengagingcomplexNPsisagreatchallengingforChin

18、eseL2learners.OnepossibleimpactonthisabilityisthenegativetransferofL1HeandNiao，2020.Thesenegativetransfersfeaturegrammaticaldifferencesbothinlexiconandsyntaxincludingnoarticle，noprefixorsuffix，nosingularorplural，notense，noSVconcord，etc.StatisticsshowthatthegrammarmistakesofChineseL2learnersmainlyinv

19、olveintheseaspectsGuo，etal.，2020.Furthermore，ChineseL2learnersmaylikelyencounterwiththedilemmaoftransferringtheChineseNPstoEnglishNPsorviceversa.OnepossiblefactorcontributingtothisissueisthatthesetwoNPstructuresareratherdifferent：ChineseNPsfeaturethestructure“modifiers+headnounwhichmeansthatallmodif

20、iersareplacedontheleftoronlypre-modifiersareallowedintheNPs，whileEnglishNPsfeaturethestructure“Determiner+pre-modification+headnoun+post-modificationandcomplementationBiberetal.，1999whichmeansthatbothpre-modifiersandpost-modifiersareallowed.However，thestyleoftransferringtheaboveChinesephrasetoEnglis

21、hphrasemaybevariableinL2：thehigherproficient，themorecomplex，themorecompressed，themoreexplicit，viceversa.Asaresult，thedifferentNPpatternsbetweenChineseandEnglishcancausemanyproblemsinacademicwriting.Thus，howtoovercomethesenegativetransfersandboostNPcomplexityinacademicwritingmightbeoneofthemainissues

22、forChineselearners.V.ConclusionToconclude，thecharacteristicsofnounphrasesindifferentregistershavebeenidentifiedinthispaper.Bycomparingwithdifferentregisters，nounsarefoundtobemorelikelyusedasnominalpre-modifiersinwritingthaninspokenones.Moreover，thefrequenciesoftheuseofNPsaremuchhigherinproficientstu

23、dentsthanthoseinlessproficientstudents.ThesefeaturescanalsobeobservedinChineseL2：moreproficientstudentsproducedmorecomplexNPsintheiracademicwritingandtheproportionofNPswithpre-modifiersishigherthanthatwithpost-modifiers.References：【1】Biber，D.2020.Universitylanguage：Acorpus-basedstudyofspokenandwritt

24、enregisters.Amsterdam：JohnBenjamins.【2】Biber，D.andGray，B.2020.ChallengingStereotypesaboutAcademicWriting：Complexity，Elaboration，Explicitness，JournalofEnglishforAcademicPurposes，91，pp.2-20.【3】Biber，D.andGray，B.2020.Grammaticalchangeinthenounphrase：theinfluenceofwrittenlanguageuse，EnglishLanguageandLinguistics，152，pp.223250.【4】Biber，D.，Gray，B.，Poonpon，K.2020.ShouldweusecharacteristicsofconversationtomeasuregrammaticalcomplexityinL2writingdevelopment？TESOLQuarterly，451，pp.535.【5】Biber，D.，Johansson，S.，Leech，G.，ConradS.and