Stance and Evaluative Resources in the Construction and Negotiation of an ELF Identity in ESP Contexts: A Corpus-Based Genre Analysis of EURAM Conference Proceedings

The present study investigates how identity construction and representation in ELF contexts are enacted and conveyed in specific genres representative of given communities of practice. In line with previous research on issues of identity expression in academic genres, this investigation focuses on a corpus of papers published in the proceedings of the European Academy of Management (EURAM) International Conference in order to explore the way in which language mediates between the adherence to specific rules linked to the specialised language of Academic Discourse (more specifically, Business Academic English) and the expression of the inner world of a given individual. More precisely, the following corpus-based study focuses on the tension between the specialised community’s expectations for members to display proximity and adherence to given rules and conventions, and the individual scholars’ desire to claim their own agency and express their unique identity.