World Englishes in Editorial Writing: A Corpus-Based Analysis of Syntactic Complexity in US, Saudi, German, and Philippine Newspapers

Abstract

This study investigates syntactic complexity in English newspaper editorials from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Germany, and the Philippines, representing Inner, Outer, and Expanding Circle varieties of English. Adopting a quantitative research paradigm, a small corpus of 3,139 words was compiled and analyzed using the L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer. The tool measured nine syntactic production units: words, sentences, verb phrases, clauses, T-units, dependent clauses, complex T-units, coordinate phrases, and complex nominal phrases and generated fourteen syntactic complexity indices across five categories: production unit length, coordination, subordination, phrasal sophistication, and overall sentence complexity. Results reveal significant cross-variety differences. American English editorials feature concise sentences with high subordination and nominal elaboration, Philippine English editorials employ longer sentences and denser T-units, German English exhibits a balanced use of coordination and subordination, and Saudi English shows simpler structures with moderate coordination. These patterns highlight the influence of sociolinguistic context, editorial conventions, and World Englishes classification on syntactic choices. The findings contribute empirical evidence to the study of structural variation in global Englishes and offer practical implications for language teaching, cross-cultural journalism, and computational text analysis. Future research should expand corpora, include additional genres and World Englishes varieties, and employ mixed-method approaches to further examine the interaction of syntactic complexity with discourse and stylistic features.