5.1.3 The identity of a modest expert and linguist...
Modesty is one of the important traits in Chinese culture, so the experts in their advising sequences sometimes make salient the aspect of being modest. Whereas in constructing the identities of an authoritative expert and a knowledgeable expert, advice-givers are intensifying their expert identity,achieving the identity of a modest expert entails mitigating their expert identity in academic advising interaction. The identity of a modest expert is often constructed through certain hedges (e.g., Caffi, 1999; Holmes, 1990; Hu& Cao, 2011; Hyland, 1998, 2000; Lewin, 2005; Zhou, 2008) and formulaic expressions for showing modesty, which are usually “culturally loaded”phrases (Tracy, 2011, p. 190). For example,
(5-6) PhD DPPM-4:
……
1 S： 对对(2.0)对，这个地方我再细化一下。我最初的想法就说是，首先，从理论上一个，框架，然后我再把这个框架用于解释学术互动，或者学术口语话语，是这样想的。那这样的话，我就是相当于刚才X老师((T1))说的，没有把这个具体化，没有联系起来。‘Yes. I will make it more specific. My initial idea is that I construct a theoretical framework and then I use this framework to interpret academic interaction or spoken academic discourse. This is my initial idea. If I do like this,then it is just as Teacher X ((T1)) has said, I haven’t made it more specific and I haven’t made a connection between (the hypotheses and research questions).’
2 T1：对哦哦。
‘Right.’
→ 3 T3：你这构架是对的，思路是对的。
‘Your framework is right. Your idea is right.’
4 S： 嗯。
‘Mm.’
→ 5 T3：但是你建构架的这个，这个角度和基于文献，
‘But the perspective you’ll take to establish the framework must be on the basis of the literature.’
6 S： 嗯。
‘Mm.’
7 T3：那你怎么构建，你构建的这东西呢，有可能是理论层面上帮你做分析的，
‘Then how do you construct this framework? Maybe it will help you do the theoretical analysis.’
8 S： 嗯。
‘Mm.’
9 T3：也有可能就是说你基于前边对身份。
‘It is also possible that based on the previous discussion of identity you…’
10 S： 嗯。
‘Mm.’
11 T3：基于前面研究和以前的理论你有一个假设。
‘Based on the previous studies and theories, you will have a hypothesis.’
12 S： 嗯。
‘Mm.’
13 T3：它应该是[这样]。
‘It should be like this.’
14 S： [嗯]。
‘Mm.’
15 T3：那拿来以后，你去看现实是不是这样。
‘Then based on the hypothesis you can see whether the reality is like this.’
16 S： 对。
‘Right.’
→ 17 T3：那那是这样一个思路。
‘Then it is such a way of thinking.’
18 S： 嗯。
‘Mm.’
→ 19 T3：但是我看完以后，你这个我觉得有些核心的东西哦，
‘But after I finish reading it, I think some core part are …’
20 S： 嗯。
‘Mm.’
→ 21 T3：哦：：：，供你参考。
‘Um, (what I’m going to say is) just for your reference.’
22 S： 嗯。
‘Mm.’
→ 23 T3：有些可能说的对，有些可能说的不对。就说，我现在关心的你这
个是，你是身份的语用研究，‘Some of what I suggest may be right, while some may not be right. What I’m now concerned about is that your study is about the pragmatic approach to identity (or…).’
24 S： 嗯。
‘Mm.’
……
In this excerpt, after S finishes his explanation, T3, in line 3, makes a positive comment on the basic idea proposed by S, and gives advice to S, from lines 5 to 7, making salient his higher power and thus constructing himself an identity of an expert. However, from line 19, T3 starts another advising act,but this time he tries to modify this constructed identity of an expert by mitigation, one of the typical pragmatic strategies used by the speaker to reduce the imposition on the hearer. Here, his expert identity is modified and slightly adjusted by “供你参考” (‘(what I’m going to say is) just for your reference’) in line 21 and further modified by “有些可能说的对，有些可能说的不对” (‘Some of what I suggest may be right, while some may not be right’) in line 23, which are typical formulaic expressions in Chinese to show modesty by a superior, thus constructing an identity of a modest expert in this context.
Hedges, particularly those expressing personal views (Mullan, 2010),which can be used as a pragmalinguistic strategy to show one’s modesty, are also employed by advice-givers to construct the identity of a modest expert.For example,
(5-7) PhD DPPM-4:
→ 1 T4：我倒是建议你。
‘But actually I suggest/advise you…’
2 S： 嗯。
‘Mm.’
3 T4：你前面有一个基本假设，有三个假设。
‘You have one hypothesis, three hypotheses in previous part.’
4 S： 嗯嗯。
‘Mm Mm.’
→ 5 T4：我感觉你提出问题的时候，好像，似乎应该
‘I think when you raise questions, it seems that you should… ’
6 S： [跟前面假设，对应起来，是吧?]
‘It seems that your questions should correspond to the previous hypotheses. Right?’
7 T4：[把你的假设考虑进去]，否则你为什么要提出这三个假设呢？我觉得你后面，就像刚才[X老师((T2))说的，]
‘You should take your hypothesis into consideration. Or why do you raise these three hypotheses? I think you should…just as Teacher X ((T2)) has said.’
8 S： [嗯，就研究问题]
‘Hmm, as for the research questions,’
9 T4：我也感觉到就是，我觉得太，细碎了。
‘I also think that (these questions) are too trivial.’
10 S： 嗯。
‘Mm.’
11 T4：对，研究问题当然我们。
‘Yes. As for research questions, we of course (need to).’
12 S： 嗯。
‘Mm.’
13 T4：要有一个，
‘We need to have a…’
14 S： 嗯。
‘Mm.’
15 T4：细化的这样一个过程。
‘(We need to have) such a process of specifying.’
16 S： 嗯。
‘Mm.’
17 T4：这样研究的比较有针对性。
‘Such a study is relatively oriented (to the issues).’
18 S： 嗯。
‘Mm.’
19 T4：但是如果过于细碎以后，这，你的大问题和你的小问题之间的这种关联性，还有我觉得你应该考虑你前面提出的这个假设。
‘But if your research questions are too trivial, the relevance between the general questions and specific small questions you’ve raised will be problematic. What’s more, I think you should take into consideration the hypotheses you’ve proposed in the previous part.’
20 S： 假设跟后边=
‘The hypotheses (in the previous part) and (the research questions at the back).’
21 T4：=我的理解就是，你似乎也不是，应该是说，是来界定什么这个，学术互动中的身份。
‘My understanding is that you are not going to define the identity in academic interaction.’
22 S： 嗯。
‘Mm.’
23 T4：我觉得刚才X ((T1))老师[讲了]
‘I think, just now Teacher X ((T1)) also said’
24 S： [嗯]。
‘Mm.’
25 T4：一句我很赞同。
‘I completely agree with what (Teacher X ((T1)) has also said).’
26 S： 嗯。
‘Mm.’
27 T4：就是可能应该研究这个里面转换的这个里面的机制，可能是语用学，从语用角度来研究的一个重点，因为，Identity研究的范围，就是视角很多，
‘That is, you should examine the mechanism of the identity shift from the perspective of pragmatics. The perspective of pragmatics could be the focus of your study because identity has been widely studied and it can be studied from many perspectives.’
28 T1：对。
‘Right.’
29 S： 嗯。
‘Mm.’
30 T4：就是你到底研究，你的这个focus 是什么，我觉得你需要明确以后，你把这个几个问题再，再归纳一下，我觉得，太太碎，可能不便于你理思路，我这是我的印象。
‘That is, what on earth is the focus of your study? I think you need to make it clear and then summarize these questions.These are too trivial and they are not helpful for you to organize your ideas. This is my impression.’
In this excerpt, T4 gives her advice straightforwardly by using an explicit performative for advising in line 1, “我倒是建议你” (‘But actually I suggest/advise you’), thus constructing an identity of an expert. However, this identity is dynamically modified by using hedges expressing personal views,for example, “我感觉” (‘I feel’) in line 5, “我觉得” (‘I think’) in line 7 and “我也感觉到” (‘I also think that’) and “我觉得” (‘I think’) in line 9.
From lines 11 to 17, T4 makes a positive comment on S’s proposal by pointing out that in general it is necessary to refine the research questions step by step. From lines 19 to 30, T4 points out S’s problems in refining the research questions and then offers some advice. During this process, T4 again dynamically modifies her expert identity by exploiting hedges expressing personal views, for example, “我觉得” (‘I think’) in lines 19, 23 and 30, and“我的理解就是” (my understanding is…) in line 21.
These hedges are chosen to make salient the modest aspect of an expert,while they also convey one’s uncertainty about what s/he is saying or will say.It seems that, in this example, T4 chooses these hedges to show her uncertainty about what she is suggesting or will suggest, but what she is suggesting or will suggest is very specific. These specific suggestions imply that she is quite sure about what she is suggesting or will suggest, so these hedges are actually the linguistic forms strategically employed to show her modesty in this specific context. This image is preferred in such a context in Chinese culture and this identity of a modest expert is also strategically constructed to enhance the advising performance.