Information AboutMarkedness |
|
A marked form is a non-basic or less natural form. An unmarked form is a basic, default form. For example, ''lion'' is the unmarked choice in English - it could refer to a male or female Lion . But ''lioness'' is marked because it can only refer to females. The form of a word that is conventionally chosen to be the Lemma form is typically the form that is the least marked. Markedness originally developed from Phonology – where phonetic symbols were literally marked to indicate additional features, such as Voicing , Nasalization or Roundedness . Markedness is still an influential concept in current phonological theory. In Optimality Theory many of the central arguments concerning constraints and ordering have to do with the markedness of a form. The concept of markedness has been extended to other areas of grammar as well, such as Morphology , Syntax and Semantics . Markedness is a somewhat fuzzy notion. There are few strict criteria to determine which forms are considered more marked and which are not. Source
|