A Comparative Study Of Identity Construction In Chinese And English Acknowledgements In Doctoral Dissertations

In recent years,the theory of identity has been applied to academic writing,but acknowledgments,as the most personal communicative event,has been relatively neglected.Therefore,combining the identity classifications of Hyland and Tracy & Robles,this thesis aimed to compare the similarities and differences of identity construction between Chinese and English acknowledgements in doctoral dissertations on the basis of the three-move structure.Quantitative and qualitative methods were adopted to analyze the 120 doctoral acknowledgements in Chinese Doctoral Dissertations Full-text Database and ProQuest Dissertations and These from 10 disciplines.The results show that three major types of identities were constructed in both English and Chinese acknowledgements in doctoral dissertations: professional identities,social identities and personal identities.Professional identities involved five sub-identities,respectively doctor,junior researcher,peer researcher,staff member and university student.Social identities included family identity,friend identity and believer identity.Two distinct personal identities were discovered,namely,emotional identity and rational identity.Doctor identity,university student identity and family identity were included in reflecting move of liberal arts where doctor and family identities showed significant differences between the Chinese and English acknowledgements.In thanking move of liberal arts,eight sub-identities involved in professional and social identities were discovered in which junior researcher identity,peer researcher identity and friend identity showed significant differences between Chinese and English.Doctor identity,family identity and friend identity were found out in announcing move,but none of them showed significant difference between two languages.The construction situation of identity in science and engineering was not complicated in comparison with liberal arts.Doctor identity,university student identity and family identity were constructed in reflecting move of science and engineering where doctor identity showed significant difference between Chinese and English.Eight sub-identities included in professional identities and social identities were discovered in thanking move.Doctor identity and family identity were constructed in announcing move.There was no identity showing significant difference in thanking move and announcing move between Chinese and English in science and engineering.As for personal identity,over 60% of the writers chose to write acknowledgements in the rational way,especially science and engineering students.Most of the emotionalists were Chinese liberal art students.To sum up,this study enriches the study of identity construction to a certain extent.At the same time,it provides new perspectives,annotations,and references for the writing of the acknowledgements,evoking the writer's attention to this special genre.