View source for Markedness, Marking, Markers

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=Marking=

'''Marking''' refers to changing form, and usually refers to the results of wider and regular systems of such change {{comment|(such as [[inflection]])}}

It need not be morphological; e.g. you can say that the use and choice of of [[articles]] (e.g. the, a) mark an object.


The term '''Marker''' usually refers to specific morphemes commonly used in morphemic marking.
For example, in English the 's' as a suffix tends to mark plural form.


See also [[Modification]].



=Markedness=

Confusingly, '''marked forms''' can refer to '''markedness''' instead, and practice sees confusing uses of the terms.


'''Markedness''' refers to some linguistic behaviour as being '''irregular or unusual''', often a case or small group of cases to be handled by an an exception an exception to a rule/description. 

Unusual here is a broad term.
For example, one aspect of [[institutionalized]] phrases is that they appear with markedly (i.e. unusually) high frequency.


[[Category:Linguistics]]
[[Category:Terms]]