A Study Of Authorial Identity Construction Through The Use Of Stance Markers In Conclusions Of English Academic Theses

In recent years,scholars have paid more attention to the study of authorial identity in academic writing.Authors in this type of writing not only present the research findings to their readers objectively,but also show their stand unavoidably and construct their identity.Conclusion,as an indispensable part in academic writing,authors inevitably draw upon specific language strategies to propagate their academic achievements,indicate their stance and reveal their discourse identity in the process of writing.Stance markers are important language devices to express authors' stance and identity.The present study takes this as a point of penetration,and analyzes the general features of authorial stance markers of Chinese English-major Postgraduates' theses,and explores how they construct authorial identity.Based on Hyland's stance system(2005)and Ivanic's identity theory(1998),the thesis explores how the authors of Chinese English-major postgraduates' theses construct their identity in conclusions.In Hyland's stance system,the present study mainly analyzes from hedges,boosters,attitude markers and self-mentions.In Ivanic's identity framework,the thesis mainly starts from discoursal self and self as author.The present study takes Chinese English-major postgraduates' theses in Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics fields as research subject.In this thesis,40 conclusions are selected randomly from Chinese English-major postgraduates' theses in CNKI(China National Knowledge Infrastructure)published from 2013 to 2016.These postgraduates' theses respectively come from four key Normal Universities in the northeast,central China,Shan Xi and southwest region.Then the author respectively selects ten conclusions to analyze from each Normal University,and sets up a small corpus.Moreover,this thesis employs a qualitative study with a quantitative support.The thesis aims to investigate how the authors of Chinese English-major postgraduates' theses construct their identity through the use of stance markers in conclusions and intends to answer the following questions:1)What are the distributional features of stance markers in conclusions of Chinese English-major postgraduates' theses?2)What are the general features of stance markers in conclusions of Chinese English-major postgraduates' theses?3)In what ways do the authors of Chinese English-major postgraduates' theses construct their identity by means of stance markers?The study shows:(1)hedges are the most frequently used stance markers in conclusions of Chinese English-major postgraduates' theses,which make up 40.07%.Boosters rank the second in the data,which occupy 37.78%.Self-mentions and attitude markers are less used,which respectively make up 12.55% and 9.60%;(2)authors mainly in conclusions construct the identity of a prudent,credible and authoritative researcher in order to enhance the persuasiveness of academic writing.This thesis not only provides a new insight for the construction of authorial identity in academic thesis conclusions,but also has some implications for academic thesis conclusion writing and the teaching of academic thesis conclusion writing.