خلاصة:
Few studies to date have investigated how native English scholars and non-native English scholars establish their authorial identity through first person pronouns. To this end, utilizing Işık-Taş’s discourse functions of first person pronouns (2018) as the analysis framework, it aims to examine how the authorial identity is represented by first person pronouns (I/me/my/we/us/our) in 40 English research articles of Applied Linguistics respectively written by native speaker scholars and non-native speaker scholars. Two sub-corpora were analyzed: native English speaker corpora and non-native English speaker corpora. The singular first person was found to be the preferred choice by both scholars. However, the analyses revealed differences in the distribution and discourse functions of first person pronouns. The first person occurred more frequently in native English speaker corpora than does non-native English speaker corpora. Based on Işık-Taş (2018) framework, low-risk functions (e.g., representing a community) and medium-risk functions (e.g., stating a goal) contrasted starkly between the two corpora. The variation in both corpora suggests that the use of first person pronouns in English research articles is not only associated with the cultural context but also by the author’s proficiency and competitiveness to publish paper internationally.
ملخص الجهاز:
To this end, utilizing Işık-Taş’s (2018) discourse functions of first person pronouns as the analysis framework, it aims to examine how the authorial identity is represented by first person pronouns (I/me/my/we/us/our) in 40 English research articles of Applied Linguistics respectively written by native speaker scholars and non-native speaker scholars.
This study responds to the need for additional research in this area, by examining the frequency and discourse functions of first person pronouns (I/me/we/us/my/our) in English RAs produced by NSE scholars, in comparison with a corpus of RAs produced by non-native speaker (NNSE) scholars, that is, Chinese scholars.
The research questions are addressed in this study are: (1) What are the similarities and differences in the frequency of first person pronouns in English RAs written by NSE scholars and NNSE scholars in English-medium international journals?
Further, Işık-Taş (2018), integrating Tang and John (1999) taxonomy and Hyland (2002) framework, comes up with a new framework for discourse functions of first person pronouns, including three categories, namely low-risk functions (representing a community and guiding the reader through the text), medium-risk functions (stating a goal/purpose and explaining a procedure) and high-risk functions (expressing an opinion, elaborating an argument, presenting a new idea/knowledge claim and stating results/claims).
Results and Discussion In our study, we found striking similarities and differences in the frequency and discourse functions of first person pronouns in RAs by NSE and NNSE scholars.
Additionally, based on Işık-Taş (2018) framework, low-risk functions and medium-risk functions of first person pronouns were notably different in English RAs by NSE and NNSE scholars (Table 4).