7.1.3 Making identity modification and identity sh...
Section 7.1.2 has discussed how various communicative needs can be satisfied through constructing certain identities. This section will present how advice-givers modify their default expert identity and make identity shift as a means of satisfying communicative needs in the dynamic process of academic advising. Three examples will be used to illustrate the details. Ex. (7-1) shows how advice-givers make identity shift in an advising sequence driven by certain communicative needs.
(7-1) 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.’
Here, T2 straightforwardly gives his advice in line 1, thus constructing his default identity of an expert, as discussed in Section 6.2.1. The construction of this default identity adapts to the institutional community of practice in question and satisfies the need of participants’ expectation in the current institutional community of practice. Further, in order to support what he has suggested, T2 temporarily gives up his default expert identity and shifts to construct an identity of a researcher by presenting his research experience,from lines 4 to 17, in which he also constructs an embedded identity of a teacher, 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, based on the identity of a researcher, T2 directly gives a piece of advice which is similar to that in line 1. This identity is constructed to strengthen the illocutionary force of the advising act realized by two pieces of advice at the very beginning and end of this advising sequence. The main purpose is to urge the advice-receiver to take his advice and put it into practice. It is clear that in this example, the identity shift from the default expert identity to the identity of a researcher is mainly driven by the need to reinforce the importance of advising.
The following example concerns another type of identity shift, where two identities are alternately constructed in the sequence of advising performance driven by certain communicative needs.
(7-2) PhD DPPM-3:
1 T2：一个，环境，[语用环境，是吧？]
‘One is context, pragmatic context, right?’
→ 2 T3： [或者，或者]你就，我就是在我的这些例子当中，我总结出，
‘Or you could, I would summarize (some factors) from these examples.’
3 T2：总结出一些，
‘To summarize some’
4 T3：这些要这些因素，
‘These factors’
5 T2：对。
‘Right.’
→ 6 T3：其它的还有，[但是我：：不知道]
‘There are still others, but I don’t know.’
7 T2： [对对，不可能穷尽]
‘It’s impossible to exhaust (all of them).’
8 T5：[(限制..)]
‘Limit’
9 T1：[限制你]的研究范围。
‘Limit the scope of your study.’
10 T3：哎，限制你的范围，
‘Hm, limit the scope (of your study).’
11 T1：限制一下子。
‘Limit (the scope of your study).’
12 T5：(他可能)
‘(He’s likely…)’
→ 13 T3：我就谈我语料显示出来的这些，其它的它有，我不管。
‘I’ll just discuss those showed by my data. I don’t care about other (cases).’
14 T2：你看X老师((T3))，X老师((T1))都给你减负，哎哎，限定一下。
‘You see that Teacher X ((T3)) and Teacher ((T1)) are reducing your work load. Limit (the scope of your study) ’
15 T3：对。
‘Right.’
Here, T3 gives his advice by alternately using the singular form of the first person pronoun “我” (‘I’) in lines 2, 6 and 13 and the singular form of the second person pronoun “你” (‘you’) in lines 2 and 10, as discussed in Section 6.2.2. This indicates that T3 makes his identity shift from the default expert identity to the identity of a virtual advice-receiver from lines 2 to 6, from the identity of a virtual advice-receiver to the default expert identity in line 10 and again from the default expert identity to the identity of a virtual advice-receiver in line 13. To construct the default expert identity, T3 chooses the singular form of the second person pronoun “你” (‘you’) to refer to S, in line 2, which can satisfy the participants’ expectation of his identity in this institutional community of practice. However, T3 immediately gives up this identity and shifts to construct the identity of a virtual advice-receiver by putting himself at the position of S through the use of the singular form of the first person pronoun “我” (‘I’) to refer to S, in lines 2 and 6. The construction of this identity can meet S’s negative face want and finally achieve the communicative goal of effectively performing advising acts. In line 10, T3 then shifts to construct his default expert identity. The construction of this identity here is greatly influenced by the default expert identity constructed in line 9,by T1, who is one of the members of the committee. In other words, T3’s constructing his default expert identity in line 10 is a result of adapting to the default expert identity constructed by T1 in line 9. However, T3 immediately gives up this identity, as he did in line 2, and shifts to construct the identity of a virtual advice-receiver, in line 13. Similarly, the construction of this identity can meet S’s negative face want and finally achieve the communicative goal of effectively performing advising acts.
To modify the default expert identity is also driven by certain communicative needs in the current context of academic advising interaction.For example,
(7-3) 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 expert identity, from lines 1 to 7, to satisfy the need of the participants’ expectation in the current institutional community of practice, as discussed in Section 6.2.1. This default identity is then modified to be more specific in the dynamic process by presenting her personal views “我个人觉得哦” (‘I personally think) in line 9 and “我觉得” (‘I think’ ) in line 11. T5’s modifying the default expert identity here might be driven by her desire to establish a preferred self-image, which is closely related to her positive face want. At the same time, T5’s modifying her default expert identity might be driven by the need to meet S’s negative face want, because such formulaic expressions can be used to save the hearer’s negative face from the perspective of epistemic modality (Li, 2001).Furthermore, to attract S’s attention to what she has suggested and strengthen the illocutionary force of her advice, T5 gives up the identity of a modest expert and shifts to construct an identity of a knowledgeable expert by making salient her rich knowledge in certain research fields, from lines 20 to 33.
Two identities are chosen to be dynamically constructed to satisfy different communicative needs in the current context. T5, to establish a preferred image and to mitigate the imposition of the advising, adjusts her expert identity and makes salient the modest aspect of it in the sequence of the advising performance, but to attract S’s attention to what she has suggested and strengthen the illocutionary force of her advice, she shifts to construct an identity of a knowledgeable expert in the post-sequence of the advising act.
It is clear that the dynamic construction of identities reflects the dynamics of communicative needs, which are mainly current and temporary in one activity type. It is also clear that modifying the default expert identity and making identity shift are driven by various communicative needs in academic advising interaction. Modifying the default expert identity and making identity shift are therefore also pragmatic strategies, aiming to satisfy various communicative needs, which are generally temporary and contextual.
To sum up, both constructing identities and making identity modification and shift are a means of satisfying communicative needs in context, which is dynamic and negotiable when the interaction unfolds. Therefore, it can be claimed that identity construction in academic advising interaction is a pragmatic strategy to satisfy various communicative needs in the current context.