A Study Of Writer Identity Construction Through The Use Of Reporting Verbs In Chinese English Major’s BA Theses

The construction of author identity in academic discourse has increasingly become a research hotpot in the field of academic writing at home and abroad.The concept of author identity belongs to the category of identity,which exists in the interactive relationship between author and reader and is realized through discourse interpersonal meaning.However,previous studies on the construction of author identity in second language writing seldom consider the influencing factors of reporting verbs.Reporting verbs refer to the verbs used by the author when stating facts and clarifying opinions.They can not only lead to other people’s opinions,but also express the author’s attitude and views on the reported information.This study examines the identity construction of the author in academic writing by analyzing the use of reporting verbs in English undergraduate graduation thesis.A corpus of Chinese English-Majors’ undergraduate thesis(target corpus)and one with 100 English journal thesis(reference corpus)were built.By analyzing the overall characteristics,classification and textual meaning of reporting verbs,this study compares the differences in the frequency distribution of reporting verbs between the two corpora.Taking the corpus of journal papers as a reference,this study explores the use characteristics of Chinese students’ reporting verbs in academic articles,and further analyzes their identity construction characteristics.It is found that the overall frequency of Chinese English Majors’ use of reporting verbs in academic writing is less than that of expert authors;In academic writing,English majors overused colloquial reporting verbs,such as believe,say and see,and misuse and abuse reporting verbs,which are rarely seen in the articles of international experts and scholars,indicating students’ insufficient understanding of the pragmatic meaning of different reporting verbs and the attitudes and positions contained therein.On the one hand,compared with experts,English majors employ fewer reporting verbs to refer to self-sourced research,but similar to expert writers,they mostly use reporting verbs with neutral position when referring to their own research to show the objectivity of their own research.On the other hand,when referring to other-sourced research,English majors often use negative verbs,which is different from international experts and scholars,reflecting their uncertainty about their writer identity as evaluators.Results of this study can not only help Chinese English learners understand the common problems in the use of reporting verbs in academic English writing,but also facilitate the construction of author identity in academic writing and provide references for academic paper writing and teaching in China.