Sentence Weights: An Alternative to the T-Unit

Even though studies have shown sentence length to correlate highly with complexity counts (e.g., Glazer, 1974 and Miller and Hintzman, 1975), other researchers such as Strickland (1962) and Botel and Granowsky (1972) have believed that language complexity is not necessarily a function of sentence length. The complexity with which syntactic structures are processes has been detailed from Chomsky (1957) to the present (Bormuth, 1966 and 1969, Fagan, 1971, and Goodman, 1969, etc.) and is seen as more than a matter of sentence length. Since Kellogg Hunt's introduction of the T-unit measure, studies which have tested the effects of sentence combining practice on the composition abilities of students have used it to measure syntactic complexity. John Mellon (1967) assessed 43,826 total T-units of 247 seventh -graders using Hunt's criteria. He found significant syntactic growth in composition ability as a result of the sentence combining practice, but quality of composition was rated significantly less in the experimentals' writing over the control and placebo groups' writing. Frank O'Hare (1973) in most respects replicated Mellon's study and his methods of analysis. A study by Vitale, King, Shontz, and Huntley (1971) likewise used Hunt's T-unit analysis on fifth-graders' writing as did John Perron's study (1974) and Warren Combs in 1976. It has been tradition, therefore, to use Hunt's T-unit analysis of syntactic complexity mainly because its use had been established and precedented. It is a questionable index, however, based as it is on length of sentence without consideration for more complex syntactic factors such as extent and depth of modification and development of ideas.