MARKEDNESS

What is Markedness?
In linguistics and social sciences, markedness is the state of
standing out as nontypical or divergent in comparison to a
regular or more common form. The dominant default or
minimum-effort form is known as unmarked ; the other,
secondary one is marked. In other words, markedness
involves the characterization of a “ normal” linguistic unit
against one or more of its possible “irregular” forms.
What is Markedness?
Markedness can apply to, among others, phonological,
grammatical, and semantic oppositions, defining them in
terms of marked and unmarked oppositions, such as honest
(unmarked) vs. dishonest (marked). Marking may be purely
semantic, or may be realized as extra morphology. The term
derives from marking of a grammatical role with a suffix or
another element, and has been extended to situations where
there is no morphological distinction.
What is Markedness?
In linguistics, markedness refers to the way words are
changed or added to give a special meaning.
Wording up..
Formal Markedness
Wording up/ Formal Markedness

Formal markedness, as it suggests, is defined through the absence or

presence of certain formal features

Depends on whether there exist distinctive features, while in

vocabulary, formal markedness mainly reflects through derivation
and inflection.

Describes markedness only within formal or structural frameworks,

which shows obvious limitations and is far from covering the overall
markedness in phenomena in language use.
 Different Kinds of Markings on
Words
Root words take on affixes, such as suffixes and prefixes, and are thus this way
"marked"—there's additional meaning attached to the word just by putting the affix onto
the root or base word.

Plurality Tense Case

Plurals are made by adding the
suffixes -s or -es onto nouns or
changing the spelling, such as in
family -> families.
Different tenses are shown through
suffixes such as -ed or -d to put a
root word in the past, as illustrated
above.
Nouns show possessive case with
the addition of an 's or an
apostrophe (depending on the style
guide followed), as in Abraham's or
Jesus'.
 Different Kinds of Markings on
Words
Gender
If a word shows you the gender of
the animal, for example, it's
marked. Compare lion with lioness
or stallion with mare. Three of the
four words in the preceding
sentence are considered marked,
even though only one has an affix
(in this case, -ess, applied to some
words to make them the female
version).
Polarity
You can show the opposites of some
words by marking them with a
prefix. Examine, for example, the
difference between consistent and
inconsistent—or even the topic of
this article, words that are marked
or unmarked.
Superlatives
Compare adjectives old, older, and
oldest. The marked versions are the
superlative older and oldest because
they have a suffix.
ACTIVITY
Give an example of an
unmarked and marked form of a
word in each markings.
 Plurality – cat/cats
 Tense – turn/turned
 Case – Amy/Amy’s
 Gender – prince/princess
 Polarity – happy/unhappy
 Superlatives – fast/faster
Thank you for
watching!