From I to D: Pronominal discourse functions across the sections of research articles

Abstract

Academic writing has been recently defined as a social activity in disciplinary communities and cultures. As a result, there has been an increasing interest in the study of self as author, focusing on the way writers represent themselves in texts and how writers interact with readers. Additionally, authorial presence has been analysed across languages and across sections of the research article. This study explores the usage pattern of pronominal discourse functions across sections of 60 research articles in the fields of linguistics, psychology and educational research in English and Spanish. Drawing on a modified version of Tang and John’s (1999) taxonomy of pronouns, I explain the frequency and usage of pronouns in each section of the research articles. The analysis of items revealed some differences and similarities in terms of linguistic choices writers make in a specific section of the research article in both languages.