Markedness

Markedness
Author: Edwin L. Battistella
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 284
Release: 1990-09-11
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780791403709

Battistella traces the development of markedness theory as a central part of structuralist theories of language. He outlines the concepts of marked and unmarked from Prague School structuralism to present day applications in linguistic theory and cultural analysis, using the reference point of English grammar and sound structure. The author focuses on the fundamental asymmetry between terms of linguistic relationships, in which one term is more broadly defined and hence dominant (the unmarked term) while the other is more narrowly defined (the marked term). In addition to examining language-particular markedness relations evident in the structure and history of English, Battistella raises questions concerning universal asymmetries as well. He discusses the status of markedness as a unifying concept of linguistic structure and as a principle of language change.

Markedness Theory

Markedness Theory
Author: Edna Andrews
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 234
Release: 1990-05-09
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0822382881

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. Markedness theory, as Jakobson conceived it, is a qualitative theory of oppositional binary relations. Andrews shows how markedness theory enables a linguist to precisely define the systemically given oppositions and hierarchies represented by linguistic categories. In addition, she redefines the relationship between Jakobsonian markedness theory and Peircean interpretants. Though primarily theoretical, the argument is illustrated with discussions about learning a second language, the relationship of linguistics to mathematics (particularly set theory, algebra, topology, and statistics) in their mutual pursuit of invariance, and issues involving grammatical gender and their implications in several languages.

Markedness

Markedness
Author: Fred Eckman
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2013-03-09
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1475757182

This volume presents the proceedIngs of the Twelfth Annual LIn guistics Symposium of the UniversIty of WisconsIn-Milwaukee held March 11-12, 1983 on the campus of UWM. It includes all papers that were given at the conference with the exception of Genevieve Escure and Glenn Gilbert's joint paper "Syntactic marking/unmarking phenomena in the creole continuum of Belize" which was not submitted for publication by the authors. Many of the papers appear in this volume in a revised form that is somewhat different from the oral version. We would like to thank the various departments and other units at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee that sponsored the mark- ness symposium. These are: the Department of Linguistics, the English as a Second Language Intensive Program, the College of Let ters and Science, the Division of Urban Outreach, the Center for Latin America and the Spanish Speaking Outreach Institute. Finally, we wish to thank Lisa Carrara for doing a careful joh on the preparation of the index, and J. L. Russell, for his patience and perseverance in typing a difficult manuscript.

Markedness

Markedness
Author: Paul de Lacy
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 409
Release: 2006-08-17
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1139457918

'Markedness' refers to the tendency of languages to show a preference for particular structures or sounds. This bias towards 'marked' elements is consistent within and across languages, and tells us a great deal about what languages can and cannot do. This pioneering study presents a groundbreaking theory of markedness in phonology. De Lacy argues that markedness is part of our linguistic competence, and is determined by three conflicting mechanisms in the brain: (a) pressure to preserve marked sounds ('preservation'), (b) pressure to turn marked sounds into unmarked sounds ('reduction'), and (c) a mechanism allowing the distinction between marked and unmarked sounds to be collapsed ('conflation'). He shows that due to these mechanisms, markedness occurs only when preservation is irrelevant. Drawing on examples of phenomena such as epenthesis, neutralisation, assimilation, vowel reduction and sonority-driven stress, Markedness offers an important insight into this essential concept in the understanding of human language.

Markedness and Language Change

Markedness and Language Change
Author: Viktor Elšik
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 501
Release: 2008-08-22
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110197596

'Markedness' is a central notion in linguistic theory. This book is the first to provide a comprehensive survey of markedness relations across various grammatical categories, in a sample of closely-related speech varieties. It is based on a sample of over 100 dialects of Romani, collected and processed via the Romani Morpho-Syntax (RMS) Database - a comparative grammatical outline in electronic form, constructed by the authors between 2000-2004. Romani dialects provide an exciting sample of language change phenomena: they are oral languages, which have been separated and dispersed from some six centuries, and are strongly shaped by the influence of diverse contact languages. The book takes a typological approach to markedness, viewing it as a hierarchy among values that is conditioned by conceptual and cognitive universals. But it introduces a functional-pragmatic notion of markedness, as a grammaticalised strategy employed in order to priositise information. In what is referred to as 'dynamic', such prioritisation is influenced by an interplay of factors: the values within a category and the conceptual notions that they represent, the grammatical structure onto which the category values are mapped, and the kind of strategy that is applied in order to prioritise certain value. Consequently, the book contains a thorough survey of some 20 categories (e.g Person, Number, Gender, and so on) and their formal representation in various grammatical structures across the sample. The various accepted criteria for markedness (e.g. Complexity, Differentiation, Erosion, and so on) are examined systematically in relation to the values of each and every category, for each relevant structure. The outcome is a novel picture of how different markedness criteria may cluster for certain categories, giving a concrete reality to the hitherto rather vague notion of markedness. Borrowing and its relation to markedness is also examined, offering new insights into the motivations behind contact-induced change.

The Logic of Markedness

The Logic of Markedness
Author: Edwin L. Battistella
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 188
Release: 1996-08-22
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 019535592X

Theories of language espoused by linguists during much of this century have assumed that there is a hierarchy to the elements of language such that certain constructions, rules, and features are unmarked while others are marked; "play" for example, is unmarked or neutral, while "played" or "player" is marked. This opposition, referred to as markedness, is one of the concepts which both Chomskyan generative grammar and Jakobsonian structuralism appear to share, yet which each tradition has treated differently. Battistella studies the historical development of the concept of markedness in the Prague School structuralism of Roman Jakobson, its importation into generative linguistics, and its subsequent development within Chomsky's "principles and parameters" framework. He traces how structuralist and generative linguistics have drawn on and expanded the notion of markedness, both as a means of characterizing linguistic constructs and as a theory of the innate language faculty.

Markedness and Economy in a Derivational Model of Phonology

Markedness and Economy in a Derivational Model of Phonology
Author: Andrea Calabrese
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 549
Release: 2005
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110184656

The architecture of the human language faculty has been one of the main foci of the linguistic research of the last half century. This branch of linguistics, broadly known as Generative Grammar, is concerned with the formulation of explanatory formal accounts of linguistic phenomena with the ulterior goal of gaining insight into the properties of the 'language organ'. The series comprises high quality monographs and collected volumes that address such issues. The topics in this series range from phonology to semantics, from syntax to information structure, from mathematical linguistics to studies of the lexicon.

Beyond Markedness in Formal Phonology

Beyond Markedness in Formal Phonology
Author: Bridget D. Samuels
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2017-11-16
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027264929

In recent years, an increasing number of linguists have re-examined the question of whether markedness has explanatory power, or whether it is a phenomenon that begs explanation itself. This volume brings together a collection of articles with a broad range of critical viewpoints on the notion of markedness in phonological theory. The contributions span a variety of phonological frameworks and relate to morphosyntax, historical linguistics, neurolinguistics, biolinguistics, and language typology. This volume will be of particular interest to phonologists of both synchronic and diachronic persuasions and has strong implications for the architecture of grammar with respect to phonology and its interfaces with morphosyntax and phonetics.

Markedness in Canaanite and Hebrew Verbs

Markedness in Canaanite and Hebrew Verbs
Author: Paul D. Korchin
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2018-08-14
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 900437003X

By applying markedness to Semitic morphology in a rigorous manner, this book brings to bear a venerable linguistic construct on a persistent philological crux, in order to achieve deeper clarity in the structures and workings of Canaanite and Hebrew verbs.

Markedness in synchrony and diachrony

Markedness in synchrony and diachrony
Author: Olga Miseska Tomic
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 425
Release: 2011-07-19
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110862018

TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS is a series of books that open new perspectives in our understanding of language. The series publishes state-of-the-art work on core areas of linguistics across theoretical frameworks as well as studies that provide new insights by building bridges to neighbouring fields such as neuroscience and cognitive science. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS considers itself a forum for cutting-edge research based on solid empirical data on language in its various manifestations, including sign languages. It regards linguistic variation in its synchronic and diachronic dimensions as well as in its social contexts as important sources of insight for a better understanding of the design of linguistic systems and the ecology and evolution of language. TRENDS IN LINGUISTICS publishes monographs and outstanding dissertations as well as edited volumes, which provide the opportunity to address controversial topics from different empirical and theoretical viewpoints. High quality standards are ensured through anonymous reviewing.