Abstract

Exploiting author(s)’s exclusivity in academic and research discourses has been manifested with various viewpoints within the broader spectrum of formality versus informality, subjectivity versus objectivity, and self-display versus self-effacement. The interpersonal role of self-mentioning from metadiscursive perspective of text and reader orientedness has been neglected in this whole debate. The current study explores these metadiscursive functions of author(s)’s exclusive pronouns in 104 research articles published in Pakistani research journals from hard and soft fields in order to establish their metadiscursive role in research discourses especially. This role, furthermore, determines the extent of association/affinity of these pronouns with Hyland’s (2005) interactive and interactional categories of metadiscourse. There were 308 metadiscursive author(s)’s exclusive pronouns found performing 464 interpersonal functions of metadiscourse revealing multifunctional nature of these pronouns. Firstly, interactive affinity of author(s)’s exclusivity was found more than interactional association with frequency of 291 and 173 respectively. Secondly, among interactive roles, framing discourse (Frame Markers i.e., FM) through these pronouns is the most visible schematic pattern with the value of 48%. On the other hand, thirdly, Boosters i.e., BST, among interactional metadiscourse, in associative behavior with author(s)’s exclusive pronouns occur with highest rate i.e., 55%. Finally, author(s)’s exclusive pronouns were observed to be showing bi-covalent and tri-covalent metadiscursive bond suggesting multifunctional interpersonal role of author(s)’s exclusivity. In the light of these findings, we suggest an Associative Interpersonal Model of Author(s)’s Exclusivity (AIMAE) which is promising in exploring author(s)’s affinity with certain cognitive patterns of metadiscursive interaction.

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