Communicating the limitations of research in Czech academic texts
Communicating the limitations of research in Czech academic texts

Summary/Abstract: This article examines how limitations of scholarly research are communicated in Czech research articles. Using the Corpus of Academic Czech, the study analyses instances of limitations with a fo cus on two aspects: (1) the rhetorical structure of limitation statements and (2) strategies used to compensate for these limitations. The analysis identifies three key steps in the rhetorical move: de scribing the limitation, identifying its influence on the analysis or results, and compensating for the limitations of the study. Five distinct strategies for operationalizing the compensation step are specified: (a) explaining the limitation’s underlying cause, (b) claiming the minimal or non-impact of the limitation on the validity of the results, (c) pointing out the presence of the limitation in sim ilar studies, (d) highlighting the study’s strengths and merits, and (e) suggesting directions for fur ther research. These strategies are often accompanied by linguistic hedging, serving to weaken the limitation’s impact.

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