Corpus linguistic methods can provide detailed and statistically robust information about
how children's written language develops as they progress through their education. Such
data can inform both models of written language development and curricular policies and
practices. To this end, the current paper focuses on subordination ...
Corpus linguistic methods can provide detailed and statistically robust information about
how children's written language develops as they progress through their education. Such
data can inform both models of written language development and curricular policies and
practices. To this end, the current paper focuses on subordination as a key site of syntactic
complexity. Using a corpus of 240 texts written by children aged 6 to 16 in England as part
of their regular school work, it quantifies how the most common type of subordinate clause
(the adverbial clause) varies across year groups and genres in terms of frequency, internal
complexity and semantic function. A complex developmental picture emerges with length
and frequency of finite vs. non-finite clauses changing in distinct ways across primary vs.
secondary education. These patterns are found to be closely related to discipline- and
genre-specific developments in the main functions for which adverbial clauses are used.
