A Study Of Authorial Identity Embedded In First-Person Pronouns In Research Articles Of Different Disciplines

Academic writing is an act of constructing authorial identity.While reporting their research and findings,authors of research papers express their views,declare their stances and construct authorial identities in the meantime.Among various linguistic resources that have been used to construct authorial identity in academic writing,first-person pronouns are the most salient devices to show authorial presence in academic discourse.Nevertheless,studies that explore the use of first person pronouns in different academic genres are not sufficient,let alone those targeting at scholars from different disciplines.This study,therefore,focuses on how Chinese authors from marketing,applied linguistics,and mechanical engineering use first person pronouns to construct authorial identities in research articles.A total of 90 research articles published from 2007 to 2016,30 from each discipline,are collected from the leading journals of marketing,applied linguistics,and mechanical engineering based on which three corpora are built.The frequency and distribution of first person pronouns used to construct authorial identities in the three corpora are first identified and calculated.Then,the four authorial identities:researcher,writer,arguer and representative embedded in first-person pronouns of each corpus are identified,calculated and analyzed.The possible factors that contribute to the use of first person pronouns and the construction of different authorial identities are finally explored comparatively.Results of the study demonstrate that Chinese authors overuse first-person plural pronouns compared with their foreign colleague and the use of first person pronouns by Chinese researchers vary across disciplines to construct authorial identity.The overuse of first-person plural pronouns by Chinese authors can be attributed to the collectivism in the Chinese culture.The highest frequency of first-person pronouns in marketing is due to the fact that authorial presence and interactions with readers are valuable strategies for authors in marketing to realize the purpose of communication in their academic writing.The lowest frequency of first-person pronouns in mechanical engineering stems from the objectivity principle emphasized in hard sciences.Compared with authors of marketing and mechanical engineering,Chinese authors of applied linguistics have a better command of the strategical use of first-person pronouns to construct different authorial identities as language itself is the research object of applied linguistics.Based on main results and findings,the study concludes that the combined framework used in the present study is applicable and effective for the identification and analysis of authorial presence in research articles.The across-discipLlinary discrepancies in constructing authorial identities are worthy of further research.By implications,EAP writing teachers are advised to develop students' rhetorical consciousness in their academic writing by teaching students the strategical use of various rhetorical devices including first-person pronouns.Novice academic authors are encouraged to express authorial presence and construct authorial identities through strategical use of first-person pronouns.Finally,limitations of the study and suggestions for further research are presented.