In many areas of language study, such as structural linguistics, markedness is a state in which one linguistic element is more distinctively identified or marked than another unmarked element. As geoffrey leech observed, where there is a contrast between two or more members of a category such as a number, case, or tense, one of them. According to myersscotton, for any communicative situation there exists an unmarked, expected ro set and a marked, differential one. International journal of english literature and social. Pdf introductionthe terms markedness, complexity, and naturalness are used. Markedness theories a basis for the expression of emotions in language lisa jensen term paper. Dispersion theory and the spanish rhotic contrast initially proposed by flemming 1995, dispersion theory dt incorporates the functionalist principles of adaptive dispersion theory lindblom 1986, 1990 into optimality theory ot. It has also been shown that speakers judge less marked i. Chinese word order, aiming to relate it to the markedness theories. College students from a markedness theory perspective 121 unmarked, whereas those which are learned in later stages are marked callies and gutenberg, 20. Markedness definition of markedness by the free dictionary.
About this document this article is a draft of my chapter on markedness and faithfulness constraints in the blackwells companion to phonology chapter 74 the published version is 11,000 words long. Sequential and tonal markedness in dongshi hakka tone sandhi 315 2. The markedness theory the markedness theory has been extensively explored and applied in various fields of linguistic studies such as phonology, morphology, semantics, and syntax since last century. Markedness theory try to explain why there seems to be a certain order of acquisition of morpheme in english. Markedness theory can be considered as one of the most important theories in structural linguistics, semantics, pragmatics, stylistics, among many other disciplines. The content of markedness constraints is not arbitrary eisner 1997. The markedness theory on ug may be beneficial in our native language ac ical and empirical, the marked theory should or will be better to depend on typological universals in sla. Markedness and faithfulness constraints in child phonology. The cambridge handbook of phonology sil international. A phenomenon a in some language is more marked than b if the presence of a in a language implies the presence of b. As geoffrey leech observed, where there is a contrast between two or more members of a category such as a. Constraint interaction in generative grammar, 19932004. Typological markedness and second language phonology. Markedness and second language acquisition volume 9 issue 3 lydia white.
A study of intransitive prepositions in a variety of french. Phonological markedness an important factor underlying the relative frequency of occurrence of lin guistic structures in language is the markedness of such structures. Markedness is a very comprehensive term which can be used in any discipline like phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, social sciences, among many other disciplines. She has been published in numerous linguistics journals and books. Towards a correlation between inflectional markedness and phonology. Dialect variation and a restrictive theory of grammar. Markedness as complexity under this general heading i discuss three of the twelve senses of markedness, including the sense with which the term was first used. Another rather different definition of markedness based on ug is one by zobl 1983. It can be seen from the above examples that when two. Phonological theory and language transfer introduction.
Markedness theory lisa lasalle articulation, phonology. Markedness and second language acquisition of word order in. Pdf markedness, complexity, and naturalness researchgate. His proposed revision, the markedness differential. Is markedness a mere epiphenomenon of recurrent processes of phonologization, or. The format in 10 does not only guide language acquisition but can also. Markedness and lexical typicality in mandarin acceptability judgments james myers national chung cheng university it has long been known that native speakers judge nonlexical forms as more acceptable the more lexically typical they are i.
First, dispersion theorys bidimensional understanding of markedness has. Markedness and faithfulness constraints in child phonology 1. Samuels entitled beyond markedness in formal phonology which addresses the question. When two phonemes are distinguished by the presence or absence of a single distinctive feature, one of them is said to be marked and the. For example, the present tense is unmarked for english verbs. In this paper, an investigation is made of the level of markedness in the production of wordfinal obstruent clus.
Markednessmarkedness marked ormarked or unmarked formsunmarked forms 2. He proposed a notion of markedness based on the learners projection capacity as shown in figure 2. As for linguistics, it means the way words, phrases, are changed, added, deleted or foregrounded, midgrounded and backgrounded. This is the original sense of the term as a theoretical concept, found in. Markedness and morphological change in obsolescent languages eileen thorsos department of linguistics december 11, 2002 1.
In their simplest format, they consist of basic and derived elements. Positional faithfulness, constraint conjunction, global comparison. On the contrary, markedness theory, which can be traced back to its origins in linguistic theory trubetzkoy 1969, has been usefully extended to a broader semiotic context to provide a model of cultural ideologies, including racial ideologies. Since the 1960s a greater emphasis has been put on the language learners, in particular how. According to sapir whorf hypothesis, language not only comes into being under the influence of so ciety and culture but also affects people s perceptions of reality and the world in re turn sapir, 1986. The terms markedness, complexity, and naturalness are used, to a large extent, in similar contexts to grasp the need to distinguish between linguistic forms or properties that. Though originally developed from generative phonology, the principles of optimality theory have also been applied in studies of syntax, morphology, pragmatics, language change, and other areas. Optimality theory ot and discuss how its tools can be used to give plausible representations of our findings. Markedness as specification for a phonological distinction. Markedness and second language acquisition of word order. Markedness is a very important concept in linguistic theory and in crosslinguistic study. Thus, any phonological theory should have some principled way of determining the set of possible markedness constraints. Markedness, segment realization, and locality in spreading. But if i add something to walk marking it, such as adding ed to the end, i can indicate the past.
Markednessmarkedness a relationship betweena relationship between linguistic elements in whichlinguistic elements in which one element is moreone element is more distinctivelydistinctively markedmarked thanthan anotheranother unmarkedunmarked element. The notion of markedness was first developed in prague school phonology but was subsequently extended to morphology and syntax. Syllable structure and markedness the syllable plays a central role in phonological theory as a constituent that represents phonologically significant groupings of segments zec 2007, p. This discussion leads naturally to a consideration of some of the major issues and counter claims surrounding the use of markedness as an explanatory principle in second language acquisition sla in general, and l2 phonology in particular. Developing a predictive and unified theory of markedness has not been a trivial undertaking. Markedness, faithfulness, and twoheight tone systems larry m. We begin with a brief discussion of the origin of markedness in linguistic theory and its use in sla. Markedness and second language acquisition cambridge core. Markedness, faithfulness, and twoheight tone systems. Um theory states that regardless of whether a speakers first language includes a given phoneme or not, some phonemes or types of phonemes are. In phonetics, in phoneme pairs of td, pb, kg, the former are unmarked for voice, the later are marked for voice. Andrews shows how markedness theory enables a linguist to precisely define the systemically given oppositions and hierarchies represented by linguistic categories. Markedness theories a basis for the expression of emotions in language lisa jensen term paper english language and literature studies linguistics publish your bachelors or masters thesis, dissertation, term paper or essay.
Markedness in universal grammar and second language. Phonological theory and language transfer michael m. Suggestions for further research within this field will also be addressed. Greenberg 1966 assigns the designations marked and unmarked to. A striking phenomenon in applied linguistics is the length of time it takes for changes in general linguistic theory to show any applicability, if they ever do, to language teach. Markedness theory as it relates to word order in translation. In fact, a wide range of diagnostics have been proposed see rice.
Markedness theory or universal markedness theory um is a newer theory than native language interference nli theory and helps explain phonetic data that the nli theory cannot easily explain. Such a theory of markedness constitutes our understanding of how humans decide wellformedness of phonological structure. Markedness theory, as jakobson conceived it, is a qualitative theory of oppositional binary relations. Sequential and tonal markedness in dongshi hakka tone. The price of rejecting transparency, on the other hand, is more segment types for phonology, and a theory to control them, dispersion theory. Edna andrews clarifies and extends the work of roman jakobson to develop a theory of invariants in language by distinguishing between general and contextual meaning in morphology and semantics. News, as one of the pragmatic uses of language, shares the same attribution. Pdf markedness and naturalness in the acquisition of. Basically, this is a case where the term is taken to be primary, and the referent is taken to be open to discovery which is a nice way to say that it doesnt have a fixed meaning, and depending on school of. Background markedness the principle of markedness was pioneered by the prague school of linguistics in the.
Markedness and morphological change in obsolescent. In addition, she redefines the relationship between jakobsonian markedness. From an optimality theory framework, hancinbhatt and bhatt discuss the interaction of transfer and developmental factors and state. Thus, the word sweep pronounced as swip violates a markedness constraint called complex no clusters.
In optimality theory ot, a linguistic system consists of a ranking of a universal set of constraints. In choosing a code the speaker evaluates the markedness of their potential choices, determined by the social forces at work in their community, and decides either to follow or reject the normative model. Marked structures are acquired in later tan unmarked structures marked items are more difficult to acquire tan unmarked. The feasibility of this reductionist strategy depends on a enhanced. Here markedness is understood in relation to the amount of primary linguistic evidence needed to acquire a given property. The remainder of this chapter is structured as follows.
Our overall goal is to explain all ocpeffects as a particular type of markedness effect, involving nothing besides the familiar markedness constraints of phonological theory which are also present in ot. Andrews shows how markedness theory enables a linguist to precisely define the systemically given. Within the subtheory of universal markedness, which is a preference theory, marked means. Zsiga is professor in the department of linguistics at georgetown university, where she has been a faculty member since 1994, teaching phonology and phonetics to both graduate and undergraduate students, with concentrations in theoretical, applied, and sociolinguistics. Lecture notes introduction to phonology linguistics. Optimality theory was introduced in the 1990s by linguists alan prince and paul smolensky optimality theory. Drawing from a current database of 650 tone systems of which over 400 are two height, i will. With the reissue of this treatise, an instrumental step in. In so doing, we can begin to give a linguistictheoretic. This markedness of theme does not make it more prominent than rheme because rheme is prominent on an overall discourse level.