Dog at My Feet: A Moment of Identity Construction within Dissertation Acknowledgements

Abstract

Human-animal studies (has) is a legitimate and multidisciplinary academic endeavor. In the last three decades, there has been a proliferation of articles revealing multiple ways of knowing about the human-animal relationship. This paper, informed by social psychological theories, turns the mirror upon new researchers as they emerge as professional selves into academia. Post-graduate students engage multiple and sometimes contradicting identities throughout their candidatures. The unit of analysis is the dissertation acknowledgement (da) at both a structural and functional level. The das have recently become objects of serious empirical investigation as linguistic choice promotes a situated academic, cultural, and social identity in a moment of time. This paper examines the generic structure and purpose of 104 das, with a particular focus on the student-writer’s identity with relationship to nonhuman animals in their lives. Fourteen sub-themes are subsumed into thanking, reflecting, and announcing moves. A case is made that the study of das is a potentially fecund research area for a unique moment of identity construction.

Language as an interpersonal marker in English dissertation acknowledgments

“…Existing research has shown that writers from soft sciences tend to use more stance markers (e.g., modal verbs, hedges), write in longer sentences, and acknowledge more emotional and social support from family members and friends than writers from hard sciences in acknowledgment writings (Chan, 2015;Giannoni, 2002;Hyland, 2003;Hyland & Tse, 2004). These studies have mainly approached the writing style of dissertation acknowledgments by explicating a three-tier rhetorical move structure of reflecting (recounting personal research experience), thanking (crediting individuals who helped), and announcing (acknowledging responsibilities and inspirations) (Billany, 2014;Hyland, 2003Hyland, , 2004Yang, 2012). Some others investigated the expression of stance in dissertation acknowledgments by examining their lexico-grammatical devices such as modal and semi-modal verbs, adverbs, and complement clauses.…”