A Contrastive Study Of Writer Identity In English And Chinese Legal Research Articles

With the increase of interaction among nations,the genre of research article has become an important way for legal researchers from both China and foreign countries to discuss legal phenomena,exchange legal opinions,reform and perfect legal systems.Meanwhile,it has become an effective means of expanding their influence and reputation in the industry and academia.Thus,Chinese legal researchers are eager to improve their academic writing,and publish high-level research articles in international authoritative law journals.Academic writing is a highly involved and actively self-constructed socialized behavior.The social and cultural background would definitely make a difference in writers' use of discourse resources and rhetorical strategies,and their construction of writer identity.Therefore,to bring Chinese legal researchers to the world and be recognized by international counterparts,a priority is to further investigate the difference in the authorial identity construction between English and Chinese legal RA writers.Engagement is an effective language resource used for constructing writer identity,which contributes immensely to the research on academic writing.Thanks to it,writers can express personal standpoints,adjust discourse responsibilities and dialogue space with readers,and finally construct their multiple writer identities.With this regard,engagement is worth further studying.In view of how important engagement is to the construction of writer identity and how necessary it is for contrastive study of writer identity between English and Chinese legal RAs,this study does a contrastive study of writer identity between English and Chinese legal RAs from the perspective of Engagement system in Appraisal Theory,and aims to answer the research questions below:?What are the frequency and distribution of Engagement resources in English and Chinese legal RAs?? What are the similarities and differences in Engagement resources employed by the writers to construct writer identity in English and Chinese legal RAs?? What are the underlying socio-cultural reasons that account for these differences?According to the research questions,this study collected 40 legal RAs(20 inEnglish and 20 in Chinese)and built a contrastive corpus of 428694 words.By the use of qualitative and quantitative research methods,this study used corpus tools to annotate different identities represented by different engagement resources,calculate and standardize the frequencies and ratios of them.By comparing the frequency and ratio of engagement resources in English and Chinese legal RAs,the study analyzes similarities and differences in their construction of writer identity and the underlying reasons.From the data analysis and discussion,it is found that:? The Engagement resources used in English and Chinese legal RAs feature basic characteristics as follows:imbalance,multiplicity,context-dependence.In the academic context of two way communication between writers and readers,English and Chinese legal RA writers tend to adopt all kinds of heteroglossic engagements to flexibly adjust dialogic space,effectively promote research achievements,and finally realize multiple transformations of writer identities.? In the process of academic writing,both English and Chinese legal RA writers construct multiple identities:researcher,opinion-holder,evaluator,and information-provider,but they are inclined to take different approaches to the authorial identity construction by employment of engagement resources.The obvious differences occur in the construction of the first three identities:English RA writers tend to use equal and consultative engagements to construct direct and open identities as researchers,engagements with clear-cut attitudes to construct straightforward and neutralization-excluding identities as opinion-holders,and acknowledgements to construct neutral evaluators,while Chinese RA writers tend to use authoritative and closed engagements to construct conservative and prudent identities as researchers,engagements with vague attitudes to construct euphemistic and compromising identities as opinion-holder,and endorsements to construct positive evaluators.? The underlying socio-cultural reasons for these differences in authorial identity construction between English and Chinese legal RAs are different values,interpersonal relations,syntactic structures,risk awareness,and cultural thinking modes.English culture emphasizes individualism,promotes equality,loves adventures,and excludes neutralism,so English legal RA writers prefer direct ways and clear-cut attitudes to construct identities.By comparison,Chinese culture believes in collectivism,respects authority,behaves safely,and takes Middle Way,so Chinese legal RA writers tend to take more conservative and prudent ways to construct identities.In conclusion,the investigation of Engagement resources applied to authorial identity construction in English and Chinese legal RAs reveals the relation between the socio-cultural factors and linguistic resources employed for the construction of writer identity,which provides a new angle for the research into academic discourse.Pedagogically,the findings of this study have implications for academic writing and teaching.For Chinese legal researchers,this study helps writers raise awareness of differences in language and culture,and academic norms,which contributes to the international publication of their research achievements.For the teaching of academic writing,the contrastive study provides teachers and students with knowledge of preferred construction modes of writer identity in English academic discourse.