A Cross-Circle Study of Syntactic Complexity in English Newspaper Editorials from Pakistan, America, and China

Abstract

This study investigates the syntactic complexity of newspaper editorials across three World Englishes: American English (Inner Circle), Pakistani English (Outer Circle), and Chinese English (Expanding Circle). A corpus of newspaper editorials from three varieties was formed from Pakistani newspaper ‘The Dawn’, America’s newspaper ‘Post Editorial Board’, and China’s newspaper ‘China daily’. The total number of words in the corpus were 1,766 as it was a study at micro-level. To explore the syntactic complexity the corpus tool named L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer (L2SCA) was used, this tool identifies syntactic production units and syntactic complexity indices in terms of sentence structure, clause embedding, and phrasal elaboration. Results revealed clear cross-circle differences: American English exhibited the highest syntactic complexity with longer sentences, greater clause embedding, and more dependent and complex T-units; Pakistani English showed moderate complexity with balanced use of clausal and phrasal structures; and Chinese English demonstrated lower clausal complexity but higher phrasal and coordinative elaboration, favoring nominal expansion and coordination. These findings highlight the influence of sociolinguistic context on syntactic choices and underscore distinct structural preferences across Inner, Outer, and Expanding Circle Englishes. The study contributes to World Englishes scholarship, offers insights into persuasive editorial discourse, and informs English language teaching, journalism, and computational text analysis. Future research is recommended to expand the corpus, include additional English varieties, integrate qualitative analysis, and examine other linguistic features to further explore global syntactic variation.