Intricacia gramatical e densidade lexical: dois aspectos da escrita acadêmica / Grammatical intricacy and lexical density: two aspects of academic writing

This study investigates the relationship between lexical density and grammatical intricacy in academic writing, following Halliday’s principles (1985b). The analysis compares twoversions of a university text –the original and the rewritten–, aiming to understand their linguistic complexity. Using a qualitative approach, we examine a selected text from a database of texts written by university students. The results reveal that rewriting tends to increase the number of words and confirm that lexical density and grammatical intricacy are inverselyproportional, as suggested by Halliday. These findings highlight the importance of considering both aspects in academic writing, offering valuable insights for students seeking to improve their production and understanding of complex texts in a university context.