This thesis is based on the assumption that there is a hierarchical order of complexity in complex sentences. There are two major determinants of acquisition: grammatical and semantic. This study deals with the investigation of advanced structures which constitute problems in the process of language acquisition.
There are reasons why this study concentrates on complex sentences. First, the ability to use complex sentences indicates maturity in language use. It would not be too exaggerated to say that many of our intellectuals are not very capable in using complex sentences. To borrow Prof. Soenjono's term: "... many of the intellectuals fail to use English in a mature way..." Second, there are linguists who believe that language learning or acquisition follows a certain order of difficulty. This is very obvious in phonology and elementary syntax. What the writer wants to find out is whether there is also order in complex sentences.
The objects chosen for this study are Relative Clauses, Conditional Clauses, and Ambiguous Sentences, since these structures contain either grammatical complexities, semantic complexities, or both. In the case of the Relative Clauses, the theory initially used is what is known as the Derivational Theory of Complexity as proposed by Brown and Hanlon (1970). These scholars state that the complexity of a sentence is determined by factors such as (a) the numbers of derivations that the sentence has, (b) the syntactic functions that the relative marker replaces, and (c) the semantic features of the nouns or the verbs.
Conditional Clauses are considered complex because they consist of two clauses and derive from a special type of sub-ordinating conjunction (Quirk, 1972). Therefore, they are more complex syntactically than many other structures. What adds to the complexity is the semantic of all the various types of conditional clauses, quite often subtle and difficult to understand even for native speakers.
In the case of Ambiguous Sentences, this thesis makes use of the semantic theories proposed by Katz and Fodor (1964) and Kess and Hoppe (1981). These scholars say that the ambiguity of a sentence is caused by the multiple meanings of a constituent within a sentence or the presence of more man one deep structure.
As the above mentioned theories pointed out, within each group of the complex sentences in this study there is a hierarchical order of complexity. With regards to the Relative Clauses, for instance, the order of complexity is determined by the syntactic role that the relativizer plays. Researchers such as Sheldon, Smith, and Kuno, however, could not come up with the same order. Our research also shows a different order from any of the previous three.
In the case of the Conditional Clauses, from the syntactic, semantic and propositional points of view, the order normally is Type I (If Mary goes by plane, I will go with her), Type II (If Mary went by plane, I would go with her), and Type III (If Mary had gone by plane, I would have gone with her) in increasing difficulty. Our experiment, however, shows a deviation from the normal orders. The students found that conditional clauses Type II are the most difficult. Unfortunately, there is no definite explanation that can be given at the moment The only reason seems to be the fact that the students have been very much conditioned during their study, that is, when they encounter a form that is very complex such as Type III (Past Perfect Tense and would have) the probability is 0%. Thus, the students seem to have taken for granted that the answer for a complex construction such as Type III is negative. This is not the case with Type
Finally, with regards to Ambiguous and Unambiguous Sentences, one usually needs longer time to process the ambiguous sentences. In this research there is no indication that among the ambiguous sentences themselves grammatically ambiguous sentences are more problematic than lexically ambiguous ones, or vice versa. The students' performance seems to be determined by their world knowledge of the individual lexical items. This is to say that the correctness of the answer and the amount of time needed to respond depend on their ability to perceive whether the lexical item in question is ambiguous or not.
The thesis concludes that while the order of difficulty (hence the order of learning) may be universally found in phonology, in simple sentences, and within certain semantic elements, there is no order as such when it comes to complex sentences. |