| As a social activity,academic writing represents writers' intense participation and is often associated with identity construction(e.g.Block,2002;Hyland,2015a;Chen&Li,2016;He,2016;Sun,2015;Wang,2016;Xu,2011;Yang,2015).Citation practice serves as an important means of communication between writers and scholars in the academic circle,which is the core feature of academic writing(Swales,2014;Xu,2012).It not only displays the wide coverage of literature by writers,but also demonstrates the selective rhetorical presentation of evidence and arguments(Gilbert,1977;Hyland,2004).Academic citation is the essential venue and method for the self-representation of writers and vital linguistic source for the construction of academic identities(Ju,2016).While a myriad of studies have been conducted on academic citation and writers'identities in academic contexts respectively,few have viewed academic citation as a type of source from the perspective of identity construction or touched upon the topic of identity construction via citations.Accordingly,some possible research areas could be:1)types of identities constructed with the help of citations and their distribution features;2)disciplinary differences in the construction of these identities;3)the application of more qualitative research methods in the analysis of identity construction.The current study,accordingly,intends to adopt the perspective of Pragmatic Identity Theory,aims at the issue of identity construction in academic citations,and mainly discusses different types of identities,distribution features,specific discourse practices and features of different disciplines.The research questions are as follows:1)What features characterize the construction of identities that academic citation assists in academic writing?a)What specific types of identity are constructed with the assistance of academic citations?b)What distribution features do these identities exhibit?c)What properties does the construction of these identities possess?2)What discourse practices are employed in the construction of identities in which academic citation assists in academic writing?a)What types of discourse practices are involved in identity construction?b)What distribution features do these discourse practices exhibit?c)What properties does the employment of these discourse practices possess?3)What disciplinary differences,if any,are there in the construction of pragmatic identities in which academic citation assists in academic writing?a)What disciplinary differences are there in terms of types of identities?b)What disciplinary differences are there in terms of discourse practices?c)What disciplinary differences are there in terms of the constructing process of these identities?To answer the above questions,this study has chosen sixty research articles published in prestigious international academic journals in the recent decade,thirty articles from applied linguistics(soft science)and thirty articles from computer science(hard science)respectively.In light of Pragmatic Identity Theory,the current study has integrated existing analytic framework of academic citation,proposed the analytic framework of the Construction of Identities via Citation Practices,and conducted qualitative study on the motivations for identity construction,identity types,construction modes and influencing factors,and quantitative study on citation frequency and citation modes,with the help of questionnaire and interviews.In the end,a comparative study on the differences in the types of identity has been constructed with the construction methods carried out thereafter.The present study proposes that writers,driven by the motivation of identity construction,should strategically select from an array of social identities and employ specific discourse strategies to fulfill the purpose.Some major findings are:1)The identities that academic citation assists in constructing are diverse,such as Narrator,Evaluator,Academic guide,Defender,Credit builder,Relation builder and Insider.The first four types of identities are related to academic motivations of citations for the purpose of conveying information,and the rest three are concerned with connection motivations of citations for the purpose of interpersonal relation building.These types of identities carry the features of being diverse,dynamic,synchronic and varied.Diversity refers to the various types of identities constructed,the wide coverage of identities,and the patterned distribution of identities in chapters.Dynamics refers to the changes made by these identities in accordance with context changes.Synchronicity refers to the multiple identities constructed in the same context to serve the communicative purposes.Variability refers to the differences in frequency of identity construction and types of identities among journals and scholars.All these features serve for purpose of practicing communicative acts,building interpersonal relations and evaluating the existing literature.2)The construction of the identities in which academic citation assists involves various discourse practices at both macro-and micro-levels.The choices at macro-level are related to language,register and discoursal features,contents of citation and directness of citation.The choices at micro-level are concerned with speech acts,grammatical forms,reporting verbs and so on.As for the selection of discourse practices,which is conducted at different textual levels,writers may employ different discourse practices to construct one type of identity,or different practices for different identities.Certain discourse markers and syntactic forms match specific identities in most cases.These multi-leveled and varied options not only provide possibilities for the diversity of citation practices,but also chances for writers to express their position and construct contextualized identities via citations.3)The construction of identities in which academic citation assists exhibits disciplinary differences.For example,research articles in computer science diverge from those in linguistics in citation format,textual organization,citation frequency and ways of construction.Accordingly,citations in computer science express their uniqueness in the types of identities,the distribution of identities,ways of identity constructing and the process of construction.It has been found that apart from a similar distribution of Narrator,identities,such as Evaluator,Academic Guide and Defender,have all shown disciplinary uniqueness.Disciplinary differences can also be traced in the sub-category and quantity of discourse practices.These features are affected by social,cultural and cognitive factors.All in all,the current research,based on the Pragmatic Identity Theory,probes into the embedded motivations of academic citations,and clarifies the selection process of citation practices and disciplinary differences.Mixed research methods,such as a questionnaire,interviews,and data analyses,are employed in the study to define identity types constructed through citations,the distribution of these identities,specific discourse practices used and disciplinary differences in the above respects.The study has enriched theories about academic discourse study,bridged academic citations and writers' identities,proposed the analytic framework on identity construction via citation practices,and above all expanded the boundary of the Pragmatic Identity Theory.The results of the study help writers to improve their identity awareness,increase the efficiency of academic citation and offer beneficial guidance for academic writing pedagogy as well. |
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