Based on the above observation, this study attempts to analyze the dynamic construction of advice-givers’ identity in the academic verbal interaction。

1。3 Significance of the Study

Since this paper centers on the construction of advice-givers’ identity, it aims to investigate the types, strategies and motivations of the identities in academic discourse interaction。 We hope to analyze the expert identity in the academic forum more comprehensively。 Current researches mainly focus on identity construction in academic written discourse but not the spoken ones (Chen, 2016)。 However, academic conversations truly provide important opportunities to discuss topics about which researchers have sophisticated knowledge, and are required to share their expertise with others。 In academic communication, one important part is advice-givers’ comments on others’ research papers。 Through the analysis of their identity construction, the study hopes to enrich identity research, especially in academic verbal interaction, and provides some helpful references to researchers who attempt to give advices in the similar settings。

1。4 Structure of the Thesis

The paper will be presented in five parts。 Chapter one is the introduction of the thesis, including research background, research object, significance of study and structure of the thesis。 Chapter two reviews researches on identity from the theoretical and applied perspective。 Research gap is pointed out at the end of this section。 Chapter three describes research questions and method。 Chapter four analyzes identity types and corresponding strategies。 Finally, in chapter five, motivations for expert identity construction are provided。论文网

2 Literature Review

2。1 Identity Theory Based on Constructivism

Identity is currently a hot topic in the humanistic and social sciences (Chen Xinren, 2013a)。 However, due to different perspectives and study areas, the definition of identity differs a lot without reaching a consensus。 Sociologists Antaki & Widdicombe (1998: 2) treated somebody’s identity as the performance of the genus, attribution or membership with rich characteristics。 Social linguist Kroskrity (2000: 111) regarded identity as a language construction of membership in one or more social organizations or other categories。

With the development of sociology, sociolinguistics, and pragmatics, people’s understanding of identity has undergone great changes。 Identity in academia has also experienced a transition from essentialism to social constructivism (Hall 1996; Kroskrity 2000; De Fina et al 2006)。 Tajfel H。 & J。 Turner (1986) proposed the category of identities classifying various identities into personal identity and social identity, emphasizing on the classification on the group level and argued that identity is the variable factor promoting communication。 Antaki & Widdicome (1998: 1) regarded identity as a kind of tool to study “how identity is being utilized in the conversation。” Zimmerman (1998) showed us discourse identity (hearer, interrupter, etc。), situational identity and portable identity (a relatively stable and changeless feature people have)。 Tracy (2002) raised subject identity, interactive identity, personal identity and interactive identity。 In the second edition of Everyday Speech, Tracy & Robles pointed out “identity fraud”, showing that identity has inpidual, multiple and changing property which might be stolen。 Communicators altered identity to meet current demand。 The possession of identity is an acquisition, rather than an established fact (Tracy, 2013)。 Domestic scholar Professor Chen Xinren (2013) held that specific social identity actually reflected, applied or even imagined in some communication context was pragmatic identity。 Identity was realized in discourse。 

2。2 Application of Identity Theory

A lot of empirical researches have emerged with the development of identity theory, applying identity theories based on constructivism to all aspects of discursive practices。 Concerning the real community contradictory theory, Tajfel & Turner (1986) supplemented its social psychology, drawing a conclusion that the identity of group members gave a sense of self-worth and social belonging。 In the similar study, the personal, mutual and collective self-definition indicates that different forms of self-representations came from two different starting points: the source of self-worth and social incentives (Brewer, & Gardner 1996)。 Hyland (2002) argued that academic writing not only displays the academic findings, but also the authors themselves。 He therefore adopted the second language academic writing to explore how the first person “I” embodies authors’ authoritative identities and other invisible identities。 Starting from email request sent from leaders to subordinates, Ho (2010) analyzed five identities of the leaders among a certain group of English teachers: 1) responsible leader; 2) intellectual leader; 3) authoritative leader; 4) understanding, considerate, polite leader; 5) capable leader。 Rania (2008) collected daily group conversations from women in four different countries through race communication。 Data showed the combination of teasing and disagreement could not only show and improve mutual communication and identities construction, but also again confirm previous identities and explain new identities in detail。 Schnurr (2009) revealed that leaders established professional identities in the teamwork by way of “sharp” and “sarcastic” or “bonding”。 As main approaches to building identities, these teasing strategies assisted leaders in achieving better goals。 Ige (2010) explored the construction of the collective identity in academic acquisition, and how this identity impeded personal learning。 Research aims to explore students’ learning, especially in the second language acquisition nonverbal variables role。 Ige was aimed at exploring students’ study and especially the role non-verbal variables in SLA (Second Language Acquisition)。 Migge (2011) proposed that the make-up of the program group and language application prompted the emergence of alternative social space products, and promoted the construction of modern urban maroon identity, which broke the bounds of traditional races and nations。 In Chen Xinren’s “Identity and Communication Studies from Perspective of Pragmatics” (2013b), Yuan Zhoumin, Wang Xueyu, Li Min, Zhong Qian adopted perse views to study the construction of identity, such as headlines, consultants in business conversations, advertising persuasion, the first person pronoun, fake identities of fraudsters, etc。 Research on acknowledgement of doctoral thesis from perspective of pragmatic identity was recently carried out by Li Juan (2016)。