Markedness
Markedness is a linguistics concept that developed out of the
Prague School (also known as the
Prague linguistic circle).
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 â€" 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.
*Trask, R.L. (1999).
Key Concepts in Language and Linguistics. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN 0415157420.
