Identity projection

For the purposes of this chapter, I continue using and refining the taxonomy presented in 5.4.1. In this section, I include examples of impersonal modalized realisations from the corpus that exemplify each role projection, and when necessary, I provide further explanations.

6.2.2.1.Authorial stance roles

Authorial stance roles represent the stances that presenters take regarding disciplinary knowledge. Weak stance positions refer to disciplinary knowledge while strong positions either judge knowledge or claim authority for new knowledge or disciplinary contributions. For the purposes of this chapter, a reconceptualization of the representative academic identity role was necessary.

a. Representative

In the use of personal pronouns, this role is conceived “as a proxy for a larger group of people” (Tang & John, 1999, p.S27). In module 2 (Nausa, 2016) representative was found to be a way of referring to membership to academic communities (programs, lab groups, research

Nonetheless, it can be argued that it is not only by reference to groups or positions within them that a person can express membership to them. I argue that the mere fact of expressing ample disciplinary knowledge using the rhetorical conventions of a discipline is in itself an act of representativeness. There are two reasons from speech act theory for claiming this. The first relates to the idea that expressing ample knowledge as a way of projecting the representative identity partially resembles a characteristic of performative speech acts (Austin, 1962; Searle, 1969). These speech acts can only be appropriately performed by people who are invested with the authority to change a particular state of affairs. Classical examples of this type of speech act include priests saying I pronounce you husband and wife during marriage ceremonies or judges saying as punishment for this crime, the court sentences you to… in court trials. In the case of the oral presentations in this investigation, PhD students are invested with the disciplinary authority that comes from their experience as researchers.

The second argument comes from felicity conditions (Searle, 1969). They are the

conditions that must be met for the speech act to be satisfactorily realised. In this research, these conditions are set by the task itself: OPs about students’ research in their PhD programs;

therefore, for assertions in OPs to be felicitous, they should meet at least the following conditions:

- Uttered sentences refer to students’ research in their PhD program,

- The presenter is enrolled in a PhD program (member of an academic community) (12) I am marine biologist but I started my master (intelligible) but I transferred to

- expressed contents are part of disciplinary knowledge or possible applications,

- the speaker believes that the audience will identify expressed contents as disciplinary.

However, one difficulty that arises from this line of reasoning is that almost everything that a presenter says in an OP should be considered as projecting the representative role. This begs the question of how to distinguish this role from others. For the purposes of the chapter, I decided that the presentation of disciplinary contents that were not heavily modalized as expressing an opinion or the generation of a new idea would be considered as projecting the representative role. More specifically, when such contents are expressed as attributed (Sinclair, 1988) to other authors, studies, theories, paradigms, etc, the expression of these contents would be considered a realisation of the representative role as connoisseur of disciplinary knowledge.

To set the distinction between the nuances of the meaning of the role, where necessary, I will use the terms representative-member and representative-connoisseur.

b. Guide

(13) In this area, there are fewer studies, however, some studies indicates that or show that mycorrhizal specificity may help drive diversity indirectly indirectly by determining distribution patterns of orchids. (S-H-CBIO-7)

(14) Eh consejo de Estado says that those requirements, the minimum number of citizens, for example 3,000 people, were impossible to acomplishme… accomplish eh to Unión Patriótica (S-H-DERE-2)

A guide also exhibits disciplinary knowledge. The difference with representative is that presenters show the audience where to focus or what to see in the visuals they use in the OP.

c. Architect

Architects organize and outline content for the audience.

d. Recounter/announcer

Recounters/announcers refer to the implementation of actions to produce and validate knowledge in the disciplines. They might include failures or achievements in the application of methods or procedures, or reference to how easy or difficult their application is, among other things.

e. Opinion-holder

Opinion-holders show their own stances regarding existing knowledge or procedures. (15) This is a man with a lot of eyes and that is the the image that Jeremy Bentham,

a philosopher in the 18th century, eh they planned a new or a type of institutional building. (S-M-HIST-2)

(16) … but the problem can can be divided in two sub problems: the first the first problem is with the coefficient eh and… (S-L-MATE-2)

(17) In this case is so easy to compare this quantifier free sentence with the list again, the theorems T but eh where each of one is quantifier free, because it's possible. (S- H-MATE-1)

f. Originator

Originators claim ownership towards what is said. They come in the form of new knowledge, solutions to problems, novel procedures, innovations, contributions and the like.

In my 2016 study, I also reinterpreted the visual Tang and John (1999) created (Figure 6.2) to show how the continuum of roles represented the different stance positions. My reinterpretation includes two concepts that Hyland (2012) uses to explain the construction of academic identities to show how they are useful in explaining the roles: proximity (adhering to existing rhetorical and knowledge production and disclosure ways) and positioning (expressing different positions towards existing knowledge or claiming ownership over new contributions).

(18) but the other is just a philosophy, a crazy idea, that you don't find mathematical models. (S-H-INGE-7)

(19) … construction, diffusion and eh deliberation of these products can be eh [fs] can contribute to the ethical and citizenship education in this country. (S-M-EDUC-1)

Figure 6.2. Tang and John’s (1999, p.S29) typology of identities behind the first person pronoun in the light of proximity and positioning processes (Hyland, 2012).

My reinterpretation of representative requires a new visualization (Figure 6.3). Showing knowledge of disciplinary knowledge and its application is as strong an authorial stance as recounter/announcer. PROXIMITY POSITIONING ‘I’ as representative (member of community) ‘I’ as

guide ‘I’ as architect ‘I’ as recounter/announcer of the research process ‘I’ as opinion holder ‘I’ as originator ‘I’ as representative (connoisseur)

Figure 6.3. Reinterpretation of identity typology based on the expansion of the representative role

As previously argued, claiming membership to an academic community is not just a mere act of mentioning it; it is also an act of speaking as academics in those communities do. This way, listeners recognize that presenters talk like scholars (engineers, anthropologists, lawyers) do.

6.2.2.2.Knowledge provision roles

The identification of instances expressing knowledge contribution identities with

impersonal modalized constructions was only possible for the co-constructer and provider roles. For the other (learner) (see 5.4.1.2) although it is possible to imagine instances for its

expression, none were found in the corpus.

g. Co-constructer

Knowledge contributions are expressed as a presenter-audience conjoined creation. The audience is taken through a thinking process in which the presenter invites the audience to activate common knowledge or experience, usually general and not field-specific.

h. Provider

Knowledge contribution is construed as something given by the presenter, which probably the audience does not know.

(20) For example, eh we need eh have a school job [fs] a school activity. My machine could be could be a computer or a paper, eh and job is that activity that need perform a complete use of machines. (S-M-INGE-4)

(21) Ok, but first what is a Panopticon? So, the name is also a refere [fs] a reference to panoptes from Greek mythology. He is a giant with a 100 eyes in [fs] in [fs] in his body [fs] in his body, and they can see everything. (S-M-HIST-2)

6.2.2.3.Language learning roles

This subcategory of identity roles was conceived of as a continuum of language learning and use identities (see 5.4.1.3). No instances of this category were found being expressed with impersonal modalized constructions.