Research Gap Spotting Step: Evolution of the Genre Marker in the Era of Competition

Abstract

Analyzing 200 articles published in Russian philological journals over the past decade, this study examines the varieties and linguistic means of expressing the research gap spotting step as a structural element of the research article. This step influences the composition of the text and its argumentation. The purpose of the paper is to identify quantitative and qualitative changes in the use of this step, as well as the key lexemes constituting the semantic core of lexico-syntactic constructions expressing it. A mixed-method approach combining quantitative and interpretative analyses was applied to study the linguistic means implementing the step. The diachronic analysis indicates that the use of the step in research articles is a dynamic process. The explicit gap spotting step was found in 78% of articles published in 2020–2024 against 54 % of articles published in 2015–2019. The overall trend suggests enhanced critical orientation of the research articles and growing awareness of the need to conquer promotion space of new research. It was also shown that the step is verbalized using a wide range of lexemes belonging to different parts of speech, which form a semantic core of the lexico-syntactic means. The common linguistic means of actualizing the research gap spotting step in the corpus are lexico-syntactic constructions with a semantic core in the verbs проводить , изучать , выступать with the negative particle не ; lexico-syntactic constructions with a semantic core in the verb отсутствовать with negative connotation; lexico-syntactic constructions with a semantic core in the quantitative adverbs мало , недостаточно ; lexico-syntactic constructions with a semantic core in the adjectives with negative connotation фрагментарный , размытый ; lexico-syntactic constructions with a semantic core in the predicate нет . It is concluded that in 2020-2024 there was an expansion of the lexical range and a trend to a more detailed description of the research gap, a shift towards more specific criticism in the methodology.