Readability와 Syntactic Complexity

Abstract

Readability is a function of many variables. Among them are such factors as content, coherence, vocabulary load and syntax. To date, syntax has played only a small role in [controlling readability. As Strickland (1962) noted, shortened, sentence length appeared to be the only consistent syntactic control used in the basal readers analyzed. But sentence length offers little indication of the grammatical makeup and complexity of a sentence. As syntactic analyses based on transformational grammar indicate, the complexity of a ,sentence should not be judged from a word count of the sentence read. For example, Shakespeares To be, or not to be: that is the question," would be rated as having primary level difficulty in terms of sentence length and vocabulary frequency. lnherent in any language are the processes that operate on a finite number of vocabulary to produce an infinite number of possible sentences. These processes are syntax. There are a number of syntactic operations in producing new sentences. This paper raises questions about reading difficulties that may result from addition, one of the syntactic operations.