Bi Yude, Tan Hua
Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China.
Front Psychol. 2024 May 9;15:1384629. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1384629. eCollection 2024.
Dependency distance (DD) is an important factor in language processing and can affect the ease with which a sentence is understood. Previous studies have investigated the role of DD in L2 writing, but little is known about how the native language influences DD in L2 academic writing. This study is probably the first one that investigates, though a large dataset of over 400 million words, whether the native language of L2 writers influences the DD in their academic writings. Using a dataset of over 2.2 million abstracts of articles downloaded from Scopus in the fields of Arts & Humanities and Social Sciences, the study analyzes the DD patterns, parsed by the latest version of the syntactic parser Stanford Corenlp 4.5.5, in the academic writing of L2 learners from different language backgrounds. It is found that native languages influence the DD of English L2 academic writings. When the mean dependency distance (MDD) of native languages is much longer than that of native English, the MDD of their English L2 academic writings will be much longer than that of English native academic writings. The findings of this study will deepen our insights into the influence of native language transfer on L2 academic writing, potentially shaping pedagogical strategies in L2 academic writing education.
依存距离（DD）是语言处理中的一个重要因素，会影响句子理解的难易程度。以往的研究探讨了依存距离在二语写作中的作用，但对于母语如何影响二语学术写作中的依存距离却知之甚少。本研究可能是第一项通过一个超过4亿词的大型数据集，来探究二语写作者的母语是否会影响其学术写作中的依存距离的研究。该研究使用从Scopus下载的220多万篇人文艺术和社会科学领域文章摘要的数据集，分析了不同语言背景的二语学习者学术写作中由最新版本的句法分析器斯坦福CoreNlp 4.5.5解析的依存距离模式。研究发现，母语会影响英语二语学术写作的依存距离。当母语的平均依存距离比英语母语的平均依存距离长得多时，其英语二语学术写作的平均依存距离会比英语母语学术写作的平均依存距离长得多。本研究的结果将加深我们对母语迁移对二语学术写作影响的理解，可能会塑造二语学术写作教育中的教学策略。
