The Writer’s Identity Construction In The Use Of First Person Pronouns In Prefaces To Chinese And English Monographs

This study explores a comparative study to examine the ways of how the writer’sidentity is constructed in Chinese monographs in contrast to ways in Englishmonographs through examining the use of first person pronouns. To achieve this goalthe thesis develops on the theoretical framework of Simon’s “Self-Aspect Model ofIdentity” and McCall and Simmons’ prominence hierarchy and salience hierarchy byanalyzing the prefaces to40monographs by adopting a quantitative and qualitativestudy on the first person pronouns occurrence distribution, the writer’s identity typesand identity perceived ways to address the following three aspects: how identity ismanifested，the similarities and differences in the use of the first person pronouns inprefaces to Chinese and English monographs and the factors that contribute to thedifferences.After data analysis and discussion, this thesis concludes the major findings asfollows: First, the study confirms that writers of academic monographs, through theuse of first person pronouns, construct their identities as the representative, the guide,the architect, the recounter of the research process, the opinion-holder, and theoriginator. Second, it reveals that there are similarities and differences in the use ofthe first person pronouns in prefaces to Chinese and English monographs. Last, itshows that gender, discourse type, academic status, face and responsibility riskattitude are important factors that can affect identity construction in the use of firstperson pronouns.