2.2.2 Identity construction in written academic in...
Identity and its construction have become issues in the study of academic written interaction because academic writing is not just about communicating“an ideational ‘content,’ it is also about the representation of self, …writers gain credibility by projecting an identity invested with individual authority,displaying confidence in their evaluations and commitment to their ideas”(Hyland, 2002a, p. 1091).
The previous studies on identity and identity construction in written academic discourse have been mainly concerned with the investigation into personal pronouns, particularly first person pronouns (Han, 2010; Harwood,2005; Kuo, 1999; Tang & John, 1999; Tse & Hyland, 2008; Wu, 2010), because“the most visible manifestation of such an authorial identity is the use of first person pronouns and their corresponding determiners” (Hyland, 2002a, p.1091). Hyland (2002a) examines the first person pronouns “I,” “we,” “me” and“us,” and the determiners “my” and “our” in 64 final year undergraduate reports, by drawing on a comparison with a large corpus of journal articles. His findings show that the professional writers are more likely to explicitly intervene with the first person.
In another study, Hyland (2001) argues that the choices to express writer presence in academic articles are “closely associated with authorial identity and authority and these (choices) not only affect the ideational meaning that writers convey, but also influence the impression they make on their readers”(Hyland, 2001, p. 207). Hyland (2002b), focusing on the use of exclusive first person pronouns, explores the writer’s presence in a text and finds that there is “considerable scope for the negotiation of identity in academic writing”(Hyland, 2002b, p. 351). The exclusive first person pronouns perform such rhetorical functions as explaining what has been done, structuring the discourse, showing a result, and making a claim. Tang and John (1999) find six types of possible identities in writing indicated by first person pronouns: ‘I’ as the representative, ‘I’ as the guide through the essay, ‘I’ as the architect of the essay, ‘I’ as the recounter of the research process, ‘I’ as the opinion-holder,and ‘I’ as the originator. These six types of identities form a continuum with ‘I’as the representative at the pole of the “least powerful authorial presence”and ‘I’ as the originator at the pole of the “most powerful authorial presence”(Tang & John, 1999, p. S29). Kuo (1999) finds that the exclusive we referring to writers themselves is most frequently used to explain what writers do in research and reveals how writers position themselves in a journal article,while the inclusive we referring mostly to both writers and readers serves “the discourse function of assuming shared knowledge, goals and beliefs,” and helps writers “shorten the distance from readers, and stresses solidarity” (Kuo,1999, p. 136). Tse and Hyland (2008) find that the ways men and women use a language “are not determined by their gender but constructed, negotiated,and transformed through social practices informed by particular social settings,relations of power, and participation in disciplinary discourses” (Tse & Hyland,2008, p. 1246).
Han (2010) finds that the first person pronouns and their corresponding determiners are the main linguistic devices used to construct writer identity.Some other linguistic devices related to the writer’s identity construction are also explored in his study, namely certainty markers (e.g. actually, show, and evidence) and attitude markers (e.g. important, significantly, and should). His analysis shows that the purpose of the writer’s identity construction in academic research articles is to achieve self-promotion. Therefore, writer identity construction aims at certain communicative goals in written academic discourse. Wu (2010) examines various linguistic devices marking the writer’s identity, including hedges, boosters, attitude markers, self-mention markers,and pronouns as well as directives and questions. She finds that the RA(research article) writer’s identity is generally manifested in four aspects.First, being a writer is presented by developing a sense of audience in RA writing. Second, the socio-cultural self of writers is revealed in their writing.Third, writers present the professional self in their writing. Fourth, the self as a member of a specific organization or institution is presented in RA writing.These four aspects interweave with each other to construct a credible social identity in RA writing.
The studies provide evidence that personal pronouns, especially first person pronouns, are the most important linguistic markers for identity construction in verbal communication. These studies provide a systematic framework to analyze how participants can use first person pronouns to construct their identities in written academic interaction. This is also very helpful in the present study for the discussion of identity construction through personal pronouns.