Analysis of Minimalist Syntactic Complexity in English Writing among Secondary Level Students

Abstract

This research is an analysis of minimalist syntactic complexity in the syntactic structures of secondary-level students of government schools. It highlights the null constituents in the syntactic structures of students writing in annual examinations. It also finds the occurrences of null constituents in the written syntactic structures of the students. For this purpose, the researchers selected ten government high schools [male students] of district Mardan. In this research, a hundred samples of attempted answer sheets of English paper (class 9 and 10) were collected through a random sampling technique. The theoretical framework of the Noam Chomskys Minimalist program was used for this research. The syntactic structures of the attempted answer sheets of the students were analyzed through parsing (tree diagram) with the perspective of minimalism. The data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively; the null constituents are discussed qualitatively, and the occurrences of null constituents shown are quantitatively through tabulation.