6.2.1 Identity shift with a clear sequential order
The identity shift with a clear sequential order can be further divided into two types in terms of whether an advising sequence includes the pre-sequence or the post-sequence in addition to the sequence of advising performance. One is concerned with the identity shift with a clear sequential order in an advising sequence, which is composed of only the sequence of advising performance. The other type concerns the identity shift with a clear sequential order in an advising sequence, which consists of at least the pre-sequence or the post-sequence in addition to the sequence of advising performance. These two types of the identity shift will be discussed in detail in the following subsections.
Identity shift in an advising sequence composed of only the sequence of advising performance
Although this instance is composed of only the sequence of advising performance, the shift between different identities can happen. For example,(6-4) 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 example, T4 directly starts an advising sequence by clearly demonstrating that she will give her advice, which is signaled by the use of a performative for advising in line 1, “我倒是建议你” (‘But actually I suggest/advise you’). Although several specific pieces of advice are given by T4, this advising sequence is only composed of the sequence of the advising performance.
In this advising sequence, T4 first constructs her default identity of an expert, at the very beginning of the sequence and then this identity is dynamically modified to be the identity of an modest expert, from lines 5 to 9,by using hedges expressing personal views as discussed in Section 5.1.3. After that, T4 constructs an identity of a collegial researcher, from lines 11 to 17,signaled by the use of inclusive we “我们” (‘we’) in line 11. From lines 19 to 30,T4 continues to give her advice, in which she constructs the identity of a modest expert by making linguistic choices similar to those in her previous utterances from lines 5 to 9.
Identity shift in an advising sequence including the sequence of advising performance and the pre-sequence and/or the post-sequence
This type of the identity shift has different patterns:
Shifting from an expert to a teacher
Advice-givers may first construct the default expert identity and then shift to construct the teacher identity. There is a relatively clear boundary between the construction of two identities in the dynamic process of academic advising interaction. For example,
(6-5) PhD DPPM-4:
1 T3：另外，你看你后边，
‘Now, let’s look at the second part of your proposal.’
2 S： 嗯。
‘Mm.’
3 T3：第五章。
‘The fifth chapter’
4 S： 哎，第五=
‘Hm, the fifth’
5 T3：=就是你最后两页的那个那那，最后后边两页，大家都有呵？
‘That is, the last two pages, the last two pages, everyone has them, right?’
6 T2：对。
‘Right.’
7 T1：嗯。
‘Mm.’
8 T4：都有。
‘Yes, all of us have (these two pages).’
9 T3：你那个第五章学术互动中交际者建构和展现的身份类型、互动关系及其语用功能，我给你说，这个第五章跟你第八页的问题实际上是，又是一个版本，
‘In Chapter Five, you mentioned the communicators’construction and display of identities, the interactional relationship between different types of identities and their pragmatic functions. I’m telling you what you’ve discussed in Chapter Five and the questions on page eight are another version.’
10 S： 哦。
‘Mm.’
11 T3：就是，是一致的。
‘That is, (what you discussed in Chapter Five and the questions on page eight) are consistent.’
12 S： 嗯嗯嗯。
‘Mm Mm Mm.’
13 T3：等于是5.1也就是你前面对应这个1，然后学术互动中，交际者建构和展现的身份类型，你已经有三个类型了，
‘That is, what you’ve mentioned in the previous part corresponds to 5.1. The identities constructed and displayed by the communicators already have three types.’
14 S： 对对对。
‘Right, right, right.’
15 T3：话语身份、情景身份[和转换性身份]。
‘Discourse identity, situated identity and transportable identity.’
16 S： [对，转换性身份]。
‘Yes, transportable identity’
→ 17 T3：那你的研究问题显然就不是研究问题啦。因为你已经有身份啦，你已经确定这三个身份啦。
‘Then it’s very clear that what you raised as your research question are actually not research questions because you have already had identities, and you have determined these three types of identities.’
18 S： 噢。
‘Oh (I see).’
19 T3：所以你的第一个问题不需要回答了。
‘So you don’t need to answer the first question.’
20 S： 哦。
‘Mm.’
21 T3：因为你这已经有定论啦。
‘Because you have already arrived at the final conclusion.’
22 T1：对，对。
‘Right, right.’
23 T3：你更不需要回答，因为你有定论啦。那下一个问题就是，你为什么选择三个身份啊？
‘You don’t need to answer the question because you have arrived at the final conclusion. And then the next question is why you choose three types of identities?’
24 S： 对。
‘Right.’
25 T3：你知道你这个逻辑了吧，你现在要回答还得有什么身份，你本来是要找身份的，
‘Do you understand your logic now? Now you need to answer what identities there will still be. Originally you are going to look for identities.’
26 S： 哦。
‘Mm.’
27 T3：可是现在到你这地方你已经有身份了，
‘But by now you’ve already found some identities here.’
28 S： 哦已经确定
‘Hm, (identities have) already been determined.’
29 T3：所以你刚才的问题就不需要回答啦，你现在需要回答问题是，
‘So the questions you’ve raised don’t need to be answered.What you need to answer is… ’
30 S： 哦。
‘Mm.’
31 T3：你为什么要选这三个身份？
‘Why do you choose these three identities?’
32 S： 对(1.0)
‘Right.’
33 T3：还是说，你要找这三个身份？(1.0)你怎么知道要找这三个身份呢？
‘Or you will look for these three identities? How do you know you will look for these three identities?’
34 S： 对，[就是]
‘Yes, that’s right.’
35 T3： [你前]面讲的是要去找身份，可是你这个地方有了三个身份。
‘In the previous part, you have said that you are going to look for identities, but you have already had three identities here.’
36 S： 哦。
‘Mm.’
37 T3：那下面问题就来了，你这三个身份从哪来的呀？你还要去找啊？
‘Then you’ll face some questions to answer. Where do these three identities come from? Or are you still going to look for these identities?’
38 S： 对。
‘Right.’
40 T3：还是说你不用找啦？不用找了，你写这个地方干嘛呀？(3.0)
‘Or you don’t need to look for (identities)? If you don’t need to look for (the identities), why do you write them here?’
40 T3：明白我的意思了吧？
‘Do you understand what I mean now?’
41 S： 哦。
‘Mm.’
→ 42 T3：就是你前面的问题问的和你这个后面也要也要一致起来。
‘That is, your previous questions should be consistent with your questions in the latter part.’
43 S： 噢：：
‘Oh (I see).’
In this example, T3 starts an advising act from line 1 and he points out the problems of the research questions in S’s proposal, from lines 1 to 17, thus constructing his default identity of an expert. Starting from the second part of line 17, T3 offers a brief account to support his claim “那你的研究问题显然就不是研究问题啦” (‘then it’s very clear that what you raised as your research question are actually not research questions’) and continues to point out the problems in S’s proposal by using a battery of heuristic questions, which is a typical method used by teachers in classroom teaching. Thus, T3 constructs an identity of a teacher from lines 17 to 40 and based on this identity constructed in the pre-sequence of advising, he gives his advice in line 42.
In this example, the expert identity and the teacher identity are both constructed in the pre-sequence of the advising act, but there exists a clear shift from the construction of the expert identity to the construction of the teacher identity.
Shifting from an expert to a layperson and then to an expert
In an advising sequence, advice-givers may first construct the default identity of an expert and shift to construct the identity of a layperson and finally shift to construct the default identity of an expert. For example,
(6-6) PhD DPPM-3:
→ 1 T4：刚才这个哦：：X老师((T3))也讲了，就是你这个整个这个论文啊，你这个：：理论框架好像也不是很明确。就是因为你这个说是社会心理语用研究，它有没有一个integrated一个theoretical framework，
‘Just now, about this, Teacher X ((T3)) also mentioned that the theoretical framework of your dissertation is not very clear.Since you have mentioned that you have taken a socio-psychological pragmatic approach, is there an integrated
theoretical framework (for this approach)?’
2 T2：嗯。
‘Mm.’
→ 3 T4：如果没有你能不能构建一个，
‘If there is not such an (established) framework, could you construct one (for your study)?’
4 S： 嗯嗯。
‘Mm Mm.’
5 T4：呵呵，对吧？
‘(laughs softly) right?’
6 S： 嗯。
‘Mm.’
→ 7 T4：这个也是，(…就是)把语用研究放在一个大的环境下，而且能够operated，就是能够很好操作。(1.0)反正我这方面看的也少，然后反正，据我所知，这个语用学当中，反正这：：完全涉及到这种社会心理的，这个：：除了这个顺应论它它可能会包括一点，其它的它也没有完全，把这个社会心理的东西包括进来，因为他引用者他完全是，他不，他是研究了好多，他研究一些个案的，研究这种individual interaction，它不是group那种，少一些。我这方面看的不多，我只是一个建议。有没有这方面的，就是它现成的一个社会心理语用研究的一个框架，除了，除了这个顺应论以外？
‘This is just to put pragmatic study into a wider context. And this framework could work well. Actually, I haven’t read much about this. As far as I know, in the field of pragmatics, the Adaptation Theory may include a little of social-psychological factors and other theories don’t include the social-psychological factors because the quoters pay more attention to the studies on individual interaction but not group interaction. I haven’t read a lot about this. This is only my suggestion. Besides the Adaptation Theory, is there an existing theoretical framework related to the social-psychological pragmatics?’
8 S： 嗯：好像没有，[我们现在]
‘Hmm, it seems that there is no such an existing theoretical framework. We are now (still looking for).’
9 T1： [呵呵呵]
‘(laughs softly)’
10 S： 都是在找，然后自己去整合呵呵，觉得这个难度构建也挺大的，呵呵。
‘(I’m still) looking for a theoretical framework. And if possible,I’ll construct a theoretical framework by integrating (different theories). However, it is very difficult to construct (such a theoretical framework) (laughs softly).’
11 T4：这也是你这个，如果做好了也是你一个亮点。
‘If you (can construct) a theoretical framework, that would also be a very good point for your dissertation.’
Here, T4 first points out the problem of the framework in S’s dissertation proposal, in line 1, and gives his advice immediately in line 3 and in the early part of line 7, thus constructing his default identity of an expert. However,this identity is quickly put aside and instead the identity of a layperson is constructed in line 7, for the moment, by clearly showing his lack of knowledge in the research field of socio-psychological pragmatics. Finally, T4 shifts to construct his default identity of an expert again, by making comments in line 11, “如果做好了也是你一个亮点” (‘If you (can construct) a theoretical framework, that would also be a very good point for your dissertation.’). It should be noted that the construction of this default identity in line 11 has been mainly triggered by S’s response in lines 8 and 10 to T4’s question in line 7. This demonstrates that the advice-giver’s identity construction may be influenced by the advice-receiver’s response in their interaction.
In this example, T4 constructs the default identity of an expert in the pre-sequence and the sequence of advising performance and shifts to construct an identity of a layperson for the moment and finally shifts back to construct his default identity of an expert in the post-sequence. It is clear that these identities are locally and temporarily constructed and shift from one to another in the dynamic process of academic advising, motivated by the current communicative needs.
Shifting from an expert to a researcher and to a teacher and to an expert
It is found that, in some cases, more than one identity is constructed in each sequence of an advising act. This also evidences the identity shift with a clear sequential order. For example,
(6-7) PhD DPPM-5:
……
1 T4：尤其在语篇层次上你标可能还是有难度，你要把这个工作计划要(做)细一点。
‘Especially at the discoursal level you may encounter some difficulties when doing tagging. You need to make it more specific.’
→ 2 T2：但是，标这道程序我还是建议她做=
‘But I still suggest that she should experience the procedure of doing tagging.’
3 S： =嗯=
‘Mm’
→ 4 T2：=就是标为什么呢？我自己有体会啊，我刚调到XXX((所在学校名))03年半年没课嘛，我就在家，其实我后来一系列文章都在那半年标注的基础上搞的。
‘Just need to do tagging, but why? I’ve had that kind of experience. When I transferred to XXX (the name of the university) University in 2003, I had no lectures for half a year,so I did some tagging. And my articles published later are all based on the tagging done during that half year.”
5 T3：嗯嗯。
‘Mm Mm.’
6 T2：就说也这三个方面，就手工啊去判断呐，
‘That is, also these three aspects. I judged (them and did tagging) manually.’
7 T4：嗯嗯。
‘Mm Mm.’
8 T2：什么转述词，什么转述形式，还有转述，来源，消息来源。就人工判断呐，我我我标注了一些，一百多篇吧，《光明日报》，后来好几篇文章都是，后来再没有时间那么去标。
‘like the reporting words, reporting forms and the reporting source, the source of news. All of these were done manually. I tagged over one hundred articles from Guangming Daily. The articles published later are (all based on the tagging), but since then I haven’t had time to do tagging.’
9 T4：嗯。
‘Mm.’
10 T2：你经过这么标注一下哦，这个过程，你这个判断力啊，你对转述言语的这个方方面面呐，要你你在脑袋里面转呐=
‘If you experience the procedure of doing tagging, then your ability of judgment will improve (when you are doing tagging).You need to carefully think about the every aspect of the speech reporting.’
11 T1：=其实一边标一边在想=
‘Actually as you do tagging, you are thinking about it.’
12 T2：=对=
‘Right.’
13 T1：=一边儿在分类了。
‘At the same time making classification’
→ 14 T2：尤其我带的一些硕士生、博士生啊，他们主动提出来。但那时候还，后来博士生、硕士生主动说，X老师((T2))，我们来给您弄，我说，你们弄不一定好使的。
‘Especially some of the MA students and PhD students whom I supervised. They volunteered to help me do tagging. I told them that if you ((the MA and PhD students)) helped me do tagging, the materials would not work well for me.’
15 T4：他们不一定能标的好=
‘They might not do tagging very well.’
16 T3：=对=
‘Right.’
17 T2：=你们标或者你们给我找报纸，我写不出东西来。其实，其实就是在标的过程当中，才出来这个idea，
‘If you do tagging for me or look for newspapers for me, (the data will not work well for me when) I write papers. Actually some ideas will occur to you during the process of doing tagging.’
18 T4：所以我觉得这个(一个[这样的…)]
‘So I think this (…)’
19 T2： [所以，所以]
‘So, so’
20 S： 对。
‘Right.’
→ 21 T2：所以我就说建议她，标这个过程，她还是要走的，你标的规模有多大我不管，但是这个判断这个过程=
‘So I suggest she should experience this procedure of doing tagging. I don’t care how big the size of the corpus you are tagging, but you (must experience) the procedure of doing tagging and judging.’
22 T4：=你可以先做小一点。
‘You can do tagging with a small size of corpus.’
In this example, T2 directly gives advice to S, in line 2 and from lines 4 to 19, T2 provides reasons why he puts forward such a suggestion and finally, in line 21, repeats the suggestion he has offered in line 2. In this dynamic process,various identities are constructed by T2. First, T2 constructs his default expert identity by straightforwardly giving advice in line 2, “标这道程序我还是建议她做” (‘I suggest that she should experience the procedure of doing tagging.’). In the process of offering accounts, T2 constructs two different identities. The first one is the identity of a researcher, constructed through his presentation of his research experience from lines 4 to 19; the second one is the identity of a teacher (i.e., a supervisor), which is constructed in lines 14 and 17 by explicitly using “我带的一些硕士生、博士生” (‘some of the MA students and PhD students whom I supervised’). Finally, T2 constructs his identity of an expert again in line 21 by directly offering the advice similar to that in line 2.
Figure 6.1 Dynamic process of identity shift and ways for constructing each identity
Generally, in this advising sequence, T2 constructs for himself an identity of an expert, an identity of a researcher, and an identity of a supervisor, which is embedded in the construction of the identity of a researcher (see Section 6.2.3 for further details). The whole process clearly shows the shift from the construction of one identity to another. Figure 6.1 shows the dynamic process of identity shift and the ways for constructing each identity.
Shifting from an expert to a novice researcher and to a collegial researcher and to a virtual advice-receiver
It is also found that advice-givers may shift from the identity of an expert to that of a novice researcher, a collegial researcher and a virtual advice-receiver. For example,
(6-8) PhD DPPM-1:
1 T2：就是，你可以，基本上意思，我可能知道你的意思，就是表达，不太：：特别的：让读者感觉舒服这个。这个：：，然后，哦I initiate a framework，但我的印象还不是特别清楚你的framework是什么=
‘That is, I may know what you mean to do, but your expression is not good and will make the readers feel uncomfortable.Then you said ‘I initiate a framework’, but it is still not clear to me.’
2 S： =嗯。
‘Mm.’
→ 3 T2：(2.0) simpler syntax，这个simpler syntax 需要大写。(11.0)然后，最后这个说In my research I demonstrate that there is no single ((读文字))。是不是有人这么说，有一个single ((读文字))。我感觉以前老外经常，我以前也经常被老外批评，你这是不是，你的target是不是你自己设立起来的。就是说：：：我也被批评过，我只好，嗯呵呵呵，所以来批评你。就是说，(2.0)就是当我们要要表达自己的贡献的时候一定要非常，不容易做理论就是这个意思。就是说又不能太过，但是的确要有贡献。(1.0)这个，哦：是不是有人这么说了，我感觉搞形式的人他也不会这么说。(2.0)他就是说，我只能，另外人家的目的不一样。他就是，我就是研究这个纯粹的，在什么最简方案之下，这个存在句的生成过程。你的目的不是要解决存在句的一切问题。
‘‘Simpler syntax’, this ‘simpler syntax’ needs to be capitalized.(11.0) Then the last one is ‘In my research I demonstrate that there is no single ((reading…)).’ Has anyone said that there is‘single ((reading…)).’ I feel that I was often criticized by foreigners (foreign experts) regarding whether my target was established by myself. That is, I have been criticized (because of a similar fault), so here I am criticizing you (laughs softly).That is to say, when we express our contributions, we must be very careful. So it’s not easy to do some research at the theoretical level. That is, we should not go too far but we must have our own contributions. For example, has anyone said this? But I think those doing formal linguistics will not say it like this. Besides, their purposes will be different. So he will,I will only focus on the study of the generation process of existential sentences purely within the framework of the Minimalist Program. Your purpose is not to solve all of problems (of the existential sentences).’
4 S： 对。
‘Right.’
5 T2：所以你就很难批评他那个。(5.0)
‘So it will be difficult for you to criticize his idea.’
In this example, T2 points out the problems in the pre-sequence, in line 1 and the first part of line 3, and then gives his advice in the later part of line 3.In this dynamic process, T2 first constructs his default identity of an expert in the pre-sequence and then shifts to construct an identity of a novice researcher, which is exploited to perform a criticizing act and the following advising act. Immediately after that, T2 constructs an identity of a collegial researcher by employing the inclusive we and an identity of a virtual advice-receiver indicated by the singular form of the first person pronoun “我”(‘I’) in “我只能” (‘I will only’) and “我就是……” (‘I will’).
Shifting from one aspect of an expert to another
The identity shift is also reflected in the dynamic process of making salient the different aspects of an expert. For example,(6-9) PhD DPPM-4:
→ 1 T5：另外就是，我想问你一个问题，[就是]
‘Besides, I just want to ask you a question. That is…’
2 S： [嗯嗯]。
‘Mm Mm.’
3 T5：这个学术互动啊，给我的感觉还是有点大哦，
‘I think the academic interaction is a little wide in range.’
4 T1：嗯嗯。
‘Mm Mm.’
5 T5：因为你涉及到收集语料的时候，
‘because it’s related to your data collection.’
6 S： 嗯：：对。
‘Hmm, right.’
7 T5：这个学术研讨、师生面谈、[论文研讨]
‘The colloquium, office hour interaction and thesis seminar’
8 S： [对，这个]也是我想就是请教各位老师的一个问题。
‘Yes, this is also the question I want to ask you for some advice.’
→ 9 T5：我个人感觉哦，
‘I personally think’
10 S： 嗯。
‘Mm.’
11 T5：我觉得可能在处理语料方面，
‘I think when you handle your data,’
12 S： 嗯。
‘Mm.’
13 T5：因为就这几类你还要做详尽地
‘because even these several types you still need to (distinguish them) carefully.’
14 T1：嗯。
‘Mm.’
15 S： 嗯。
‘Mm.’
16 T5：就是鉴别啊，比较啊。
‘to distinguish them and to make comparison between them.’
17 T1：对对。
‘Right right.’
18 T5：因为每一类的语料都会非常的大。
‘Because (the amount of) each type of data will be very large’
19 S： 对对。
‘Right right.’
→ 20 T5：因为我看到的《社会语言学》上前不久发表的一篇就是，类似于跟你这个挺相近的，它把一次论文答辩，
‘because I read an article lately published in Journal of Sociolinguistics. It is similar to what you are discussing. It(transcribes) the process of one thesis defence.’
21 T1：嗯。
‘Mm.’
22 S： 嗯。
‘Mm.’
23 T5：论文答辩这个过程
‘The process of the thesis defence’
24 T1：对对。
‘Right right.’
25 T5：转录下来哎，然后，
‘(After) the thesis defence was transcribed, and then’
26 S： 嗯。
‘Mm.’
27 T5：它就评价了每一个答委，
‘Then it evaluated the utterances of every member of the committee of the thesis defence.’
28 T1：嗯嗯。
‘Mm Mm.’
29 T5：在这里面身份怎么：
‘How identity is (displayed in the process).’
30 T1：的表现，[然后(…)]
‘The display of identity and then’
31 T5： [各自的]特征啊等等。
‘The features of identity (displayed by each member of the committee of the thesis defence) and so on.’
32 T1：对对对。
‘Right right right.’
→ 33 T5：他/她那个就写了一篇很长的论文。所以你如果有这么多的种类的这个
‘He/she wrote a very long paper, so if you have so many types of (academic interaction)’
34 T1：嗯嗯。
‘Mm Mm.’
35 T5：学术互动。
‘Academic interaction’
36 T1：对对。
‘Right right.’
37 T5：我不知道你到时候那个语料的把握上你会不会?
‘You might (encounter problems) when you (collect and analyze the data), don’t you think ?’
38 T1：是不是可以，哦：
‘I wonder if (it is possible to focus on one type).’
39 S： 我本来想着是找一些[它们共通的东西] 。
‘I was initially thinking of looking for some common things(across different types of academic interaction.)’
40 T1： [集中一类]，集中一类。
‘Focus on one type, focus on one type.’
In this example, T5 constructs her default identity of an expert in the pre-sequence, by making comments on S’s choosing different genres of academic interaction in the doctoral project, from lines 1 to 7. In addition, S’s utterance in line 8 (especially “请教”, ‘seek advice from’) also helps to reciprocally construct T5’s expert identity and the expert identity of other members of the committee.
From lines 9 to 16, T5 gives advice to S on how to deal with the data, but the style of her utterances demonstrates that she is expressing her personal views, such as “我个人感觉” (‘I personally think’) in line 9 and “我觉得” (‘I think’) in line 11. The expert identity is therefore modified and adjusted through expressing personal views (i.e., one of the styles of offering advice)and becomes more specific and makes salient the modest aspect of an expert.From line 18, T5 offers accounts for her advice given in the previous sequences.In the post-sequence, from lines 20 to 33, T5 refers to an article and gives a detailed account of this article to show her rich knowledge in the related research fields, thus constructing an identity of a knowledgeable expert.Finally, based on the accounts in the post-sequence, T5 points out the limitations and problems in S’s data and shows her concern in lines 33, 35 and 37.
In the whole advising sequence, T5 first constructs the default identity of an expert, in the pre-sequence, which is then modified to become more specific in the dynamic process that follows, namely an identity of a modest expert in the sequence of advising performance and that of a knowledgeable expert in the sequence of offering accounts.