I’m part of the collective: exploring the influence of L1 culture on communal representation through the use of we, us and our in Nigerian undergraduates’ written texts

2021 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-71
Author(s):  
Remilekun Iyabo Adeyemi
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Semantic Analysis ◽  
First Person ◽  
Shared Experience ◽  
Person Plural ◽  
Student Writers ◽  
Social Community ◽  
Written Texts ◽  
Collective Experience ◽  
First Person Plural

This study explores the influence of L1 culture on Nigerian tertiary learners’ use of first-person plural personal pronouns we, us and our in written texts to indicate the collective, i.e., the writers’ social community. The quantitative and semantic analysis of the learners’  use of the pronouns was done using the Nigerian learner English corpus (NLEC) in comparison to Louvain corpus of native English student essays (LOCNESS). The quantitative analysis indicates the overuse of first-person plural pronouns by Nigerian learners  compared to their LOCNESS counterparts. The study reports on the semantic analysis and reveals that the learners’ overuse of these pronouns can be traced to their cultural background of collective shared experience, communality, inclusiveness and solidarity. This is evident in the collocates of the pronouns, e.g., ‘we live,’ ‘we have,’ ‘technology has helped us,’' ‘it gives us’, ‘our society,’ ‘our nation.’ The student-writers’ use of these pronouns indicates their involvement in issues of discourse and they emphasize collective  experience. The findings of the study confirm writers make discoursal choices that align them with their L1 community which is traceable in their L2 written texts. Keywords: pronouns; culture; undergraduates; academic writing; student-writers; second language

scholarly journals Self-mention Markers and their Rhetorical Functions in Dentistry Research Articles: A Corpus-based Study of Intradisciplinary Variations within Seven Dentistry Subdisciplines

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 136
Author(s):  
Hesham Suleiman Alyousef ◽  
Najd Emad Q. Alotaibi
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Maxillofacial Surgery ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Genre Studies ◽  
Oral And Maxillofacial Surgery ◽  
First Person ◽  
Discussion Section ◽  
Person Plural ◽  
First Person Plural

Research on intradisciplinary variations in self-mention marker use in research articles (RAs) in dentistry subdisciplines is lacking. The present study investigates self-mention markers used in each of the seven dentistry subdisciplines (oral sciences, periodontics, endodontics, pediatrics, prosthodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, and orthodontics), sections of RAs that employ more self-mention devices in each of the seven dentistry subdisciplines, and common rhetorical realizations of first-person pronouns in the seven dentistry subdisciplines. The analytical framework was primarily based on Hyland’s (2003) four rhetorical functions of self-mentions in RAs. The findings showed the lack of qualitative and quantitative intradisciplinary variations across six of the seven dentistry subdisciplines. The first-person plural pronouns “we” and “our” were the most frequently employed self-mention devices in the Discussion section of RAs. Authors in the periodontics subdiscipline preferred to retain an objective stance through the use of passive constructions, abiding by the conventional norms of academic writing that restrict them. The findings also revealed that explaining a procedure and stating findings/claims were the most frequent realizations associated with the use of self-mention devices, with the exception of periodontics RAs that employed passive constructions instead. The findings contribute to the fields of discourse and genre studies as well as ESP/EAP courses. They may have implications for dentistry RA writing and teaching. An awareness of more frequently used self-mentions in dentistry RAs and their rhetorical functions can help English dentistry scholars successfully produce RAs in line with the academic writing norms of each subdiscipline.

A deixis emocional em português europeu contemporâneo: alguns contributos

2019 ◽  
pp. 225-235
Author(s):  
Ana Cristina Macário Lopes
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Data ◽  
First Person ◽  
Person Plural ◽  
First Person Plural

This paper is a contribution to the description of the structures that express emotional deixis, in European contemporary Portuguese. The analysis of our empirical data show that, in Portuguese, demonstratives are not the only category that encodes emotional deictic meaning; possessives and first person plural display the same function, in some contexts. It is also discussed the semantic bleaching of the deictic space adverbs cá and lá and it is argued that it can only be described and explained in illocutionary terms, and not in the framework of emotional deixis.

Colloquial features in Word Englishes

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 479-505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Collins ◽  
Xinyue Yao
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
American English ◽  
World Englishes ◽  
Evolutionary Status ◽  
First Person ◽  
Functional Interpretation ◽  
Person Plural ◽  
World English ◽  
First Person Plural ◽  
Grammatical Change

A powerful discourse-pragmatic agent of grammatical change in English since the mid-twentieth century has been the increasing acceptance of colloquialism. Little is known, however, about its influence on grammatical developments in regional varieties of World English other than the two inner circle ‘supervarieties’, British and American English. This paper reports findings from a corpus-based study of three grammatical categories known to be undergoing a colloquialism-related rise in contemporary English, across a range of registers in ten World Englishes: quasi-modals (have to, have got to, be going to, want to), get-passives, and first person plural inclusive let’s. In each case comparisons are drawn with non-colloquial variants: modals (must, should, will, shall), be-passives, and let us. Subsequent functional interpretation of the data is used to explore the effect upon the quantitative patterns identified of the phenomenon of colloquialism and of further factors with which it interacts (including Americanism, prescriptivism, and evolutionary status).

Are we visible? An interdisciplinary data-based study of self-mention in research articles

2016 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohsen Khedri
Keyword(s):  
Applied Linguistics ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Environmental Engineering ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
First Person ◽  
Person Plural ◽  
Rhetorical Strategy ◽  
Original Contribution ◽  
Subjective Strategies ◽  
First Person Plural

AbstractResearch articles have often materialized through the use of impersonal objective strategies viz. abstract rhetors, passive constructions, and nominalizations. However, intrusive or subjective strategies, such as self-mentions, appear to integrate impersonal structures. As a rhetorical strategy to explicitly portray authorial selves, self-mentions help writers to project themselves into the discourse by marketing themselves and demarcating their original contribution to the field. Here, an interdisciplinary approach was adopted to examine explicit authorial presence in a comparable corpus of 40 research articles in applied linguistics, psychology, environmental engineering, and chemistry by taking into consideration: (i) the frequency of using exclusive first person plural pronouns (

Inclusive and exclusive uses of we in four American textbooks for multicultural teacher education

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 625-647
Author(s):  
Baburhan Uzum ◽  
Bedrettin Yazan ◽  
Ali Fuad Selvi
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Multicultural Education ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Positioning Theory ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
First Person ◽  
Person Plural ◽  
Multicultural Teacher Education ◽  
First Person Plural ◽  
Multicultural Teacher

This study analyses four American multicultural teacher education textbooks for instances of inclusive and exclusive representations through the use of first person plural pronouns (i.e. we, us, our, ours). Positioning theory is used as a theoretical framework to examine the textbook authors’ uses of first person plural pronouns and to understand how these pronouns perform reflexive and interactive positioning and fluidly (re)negotiate and (re)delineate the borders between ‘self’ and ‘other.’ The findings suggest that first person plural pronouns are used extensively in the focal textbooks to refer to such groups as authors, Americans, humans, teachers, and teacher educators. Expressing differing levels of ambiguity in interpretation, these pronouns play significant roles in the discursive representations of inclusivity and exclusivity across topics of multicultural education. This study implicates that language teachers should use criticality and reflexivity when approaching exclusionary discourses and representations that neglect the particularities of individuals from different cultures.

Did Paul Really Think He Wasn’t Going to Die?

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-59
Author(s):  
J. Andrew Doole
Keyword(s):  
First Person ◽  
Person Plural ◽  
First Person Plural

AbstractIt is often claimed that Paul expected the Lord to return in glory within his lifetime, based in part on the text of 1 Thess 4:13–18. Those who have a theological interest in denying Paul’s mistaken optimism have to bend over backwards to explain why this wasn’t the case. The use of the First Person Plural in this passage however may be indicative that Paul was not actually making this claim for himself at all. Both the content and the context suggest rather that Paul, Silvanus and Timothy were providing the Thessalonian Christians with a “soundbite” for mutual and reciprocal encouragement when they met as a community. Indeed, Paul may have used First Person Plural soundbites throughout his ministry.

scholarly journals We Shall Fight: Speaker-Exclusive We as a Grammatical Metaphor

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 43
Author(s):  
Francesca Santulli
Keyword(s):  
Public Discourse ◽  
The Other ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
First Person ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Person Plural ◽  
Plural Pronoun ◽  
First Person Plural ◽  
The One ◽  
Metaphorical Interpretation

The first person plural pronoun cannot be considered as an expression of pluralization of the first. Its semantic boundaries are defined in context, and this inherent vagueness an be pragmatically exploited for communicative purposes. Beyond the frequently investigated opposition between (addressee-) inclusive vs exclusive forms, this paper explores non-prototypical uses of the first person plural pronoun, focusing on the conflicts that arise when it is used in contexts that semantically exclude the speaker. Speaker-exclusive forms can occur in different situations, ranging from interpersonal exchanges to public discourse. The paper investigates their different semantic implications, highlighting their common traits as well as their crucial peculiarities. Both the review of the literature and the analysis of actual examples bring forth the different values and functions of various speaker-exclusive occurrences of the first person plural. A more systematic categorization of the forms can be obtained adopting a metaphorical interpretation, which on the one hand emphasises their common denominator (i.e. speaker-exclusiveness) and, on the other, sheds light on their varying communicative potential.

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