Abstract:
The present study investigated variation in the distribution, discourse references
and functions of /, we and you (tri-PP) in classroom lectures across three broad
knowledge domains -Humanities (HS), Social Sciences (SS) and Natural Sciences
(NS). To accomplish this task, I audio-recorded classroom lectures from two public
universities in Ghana; transcribed and processed them into computer readable
forms. The subcorpora were normed, and the concordance tool in AntConc was
used to generate the occurrences of the tri-PP. The computerized analysis was
complemented by manual analysis, to determine the discourse references and
functions which were conditioned by pragmatic factors. The log-likelihood
significance test was used to check statistical significance. The analysis showed
that NS employed more of the tri-PP, followed by HS and SS. While disciplinarily
influenced the use of we at HS vs NS, and SS vs NS, it did not affect its use at HS
vs SS. Again, the study showed that I, we and you designated common referents
like lecturer across all the disciplinary supercommunities (DSs), albeit with
variation in statistical significance. Finally, speaker-reference pronouns performed
several discourse functions including I as a representative, and I as a guide, with statistical differences across DSs. The findings deepen our understanding on
disciplinarily in relation to /, we and you usage in classroom lectures. They further
lead to a more robust theoretical consideration of the discourse references and
functions of the tri-PP in classroom lectures. The findings have implications for
pedagogy and further research on pronominal usage.
