8.1.1 Default and deviational identities construct...
Based on 395 advising sequences extracted from five PhD dissertation proposal presentation meetings in a Chinese context, the present study has examined the categories and sub-categories of identities constructed by advice-givers in their advising sequences and the various linguistic choices made for constructing these identities. It has been found that the following identities are constructed: the expert identity, the teacher identity, the identity of a collegial researcher, the identity of a novice researcher, the identity of a virtual advice-receiver and the identity of a layperson. These identities can be put into two general categories: the default identity and the deviational identity. The default identity is the identity of an expert and the others are deviational identities. These identities form a continuum in terms of the degree of their expectedness in this institutional community of practice.
It has also been found that the default expert identity is often modified to be more specific in the dynamic process of academic advising by making salient different aspects of an expert. Consequently, the following identities are constructed: the identity of a knowledgeable expert, an authoritative expert, a modest expert and an amiable expert. These identities are actually the various images of an expert and they are not at the same level with deviational identities mentioned above.
The different identities are constructed through making various linguistic choices, including the use of linguistic forms, for example, personal pronouns and, through the discourse contents and the discourse styles, for example, the heuristic questions used for constructing the identity of a teacher. However,the linguistic choices made for constructing certain identities are in some sense unique. For example, the inclusive we “我们” (‘we’) is often used to construct the identity of an collegial researcher and tag questions are the most important choices made to construct the identity of an amiable expert.
In addition, these identities are mainly distribute in the pre-sequence and the sequence of advising performance of an advising sequence and their distribution is closely related to the effective performance of advising acts.