The Use of Personal Pronouns: Role Relationships in Scientific Journal Articles.

Abstract This paper presents an empirical study of personal pronouns in scientific journal articles. Viewing written text as interaction, this study investigates how the use of personal pronouns may reveal writers perceptions of their own role in research and their relationship with expected readers as well as the scientific-academic community. First-person plural pronouns are used far more frequently than other types of personal pronouns. A further analysis of first-person plural pronouns suggests that they can have a number of semantic references and perform multiple functions in the journal article. Examples from sampled texts show how writers use strategically exclusive we to refer to writers themselves or inclusive we to refer to either writers and readers or the discipline as a whole for different communicative purposes. The use of second-person, third-person, and indefinite pronouns also reflects a writers intention to secure cooperation from, and stress solidarity with, readers.

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