L2 Syntactical Complexity Analyzer (L2SCA) developed by Xiaofei Lu at the Pennsylvania State University, is a computational tool which produces syntactic complexity indices of written English language texts.[1] Along with Coh-Metrix, the L2SCA is one of the most extensively used computational tool to compute indices of second language writing development. The L2SCA is also widely utilised in the field of corpus linguistics.[2] The L2SCA is available in a single and a batch mode. The first provides the possibility of analyzing a single written text for 14 syntactic complexity indices.[3] The latter allows the user to analyze 30 written texts simultaneously.
The L2SCA has been used in numerous studies in the field of second language writing development to compute indices of syntactic complexity.[4] [5] [6]
The L2SCA has also been used in various studies in the field of corpus linguistics.[7] [8]
| No. | Construct | Index | Abbr.1 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Syntactic structures | Word count | W | |
| 2. | Sentence | S | ||
| 3. | Verb phrase | VP | ||
| 4. | Clause | C | ||
| 5. | T-unit | T | ||
| 6. | Dependent clause | DC | ||
| 7. | Complex T-unit | CT | ||
| 8. | Coordinate phrase | CP | ||
| 9. | Complex nominal | CN | ||
| 10. | Syntactic complexity indices | Length of production units | Mean length of sentence | MLS |
| 11. | Mean length of T-unit | MLT | ||
| 12. | Mean length of clause | MLC | ||
| 13. | Overall sentence complexity | Clause per sentence | C/S | |
| 14. | Amounts of subordination | Clause per T-unit | C/T | |
| 15. | Complex T-unit ratio | CT/T | ||
| 16. | Dependent clause per clause | DC/C | ||
| 17. | Dependent clause per T-unit | DC/T | ||
| 18. | Amounts of coordination | Coordinate phrase per clause | CP/C | |
| 19. | Coordinate phrase per T-unit | CP/T | ||
| 20. | T-unit per sentence | T/S | ||
| 21. | Phrasal sophistication | Complex nominal per clause | CN/C | |
| 22. | Complex nominal per T-unit | CN/T | ||
| 23. | Verb phrase per T-unit | V/T | ||