Multi-dimensional analysis of Japanese native speakers’ L2 Chinese writing

Using corpus-based multi-dimensional analysis (MDA), this study investigated the linguistic variation in Chinese narrative and argumentative writing produced by native Chinese speakers (L1) and native Japanese students learning Chinese as a second language (L2). Results of exploratory factor analysis indicated three functional dimensions: (1) verb-centered narrative discourse versus noun-centered abstract informative discourse, (2) richness of lexical output, and (3) adverbial modification. Post hoc multiple comparison results of analyses of variance revealed that Chinese narrative and argumentative styles of writing show significant stylistic differences in Dimensions 1 and 2. Specifically, Chinese narrative writing shows a verb-centered narrative style, whereas argumentative writing employs an overall noun-centered abstract information style, and the vocabulary richness of the former style was significantly lower than that of the latter. The following significant differences were observed between L1 and L2 writing: (1) in Chinese narrative writing, L2 students were significantly weaker than L1 speakers in verb-centered narrative style, vocabulary richness, and adverbial modification, and (2) in argumentative writing, L2 students were significantly weaker than L1 speakers in vocabulary richness. Overall, this study successfully applies MDA to L2 Chinese writing across registers, confirming that MDA can provide insights into L2 Chinese writing.