By Gani, Bako Ishaya
Markedness theory holds that certain elements in the linguistic system have an interrelationship that is neither arbitrary nor purely formal but defined by the fact that one element is distinguished from the other through the addition of an extra feature “a mark”. When the distinction is neutralized it’s always the simpler “unmarked” member of the opposition that appears (Asher, 382).
The theory of markedness was first discovered in modem linguistics in the l930s, in the writings of the Prague school structural phonologists. The prominent phonologists are: Nicholas Trubatzkoy and Roman Jacobson. Their classic proposal about markedness was made in phonology. However, the notion has further been richly explored for all other aspects of languages. It was embraced by European structuralists, linguists, Chomskyan principles and parameters, syntax, neo-Gracean pragmatics, optimancy theory, first and second language acquisition and Creole studies. Those prominent in the grammar are Jacobson (1984), and Hiemsler, (1953, 1992). They ultimately developed it into a theory of linguistics tagged “naturalness”.
Many linguistic phenomena consist of polar pairs: for example, the phonological feature: unvoiced-voiced, the grammatical relations — singular — plural, active-passive (Asher, 378). Asher further said that markedness is correlated with the asymmetric relationship between two choices whether in phonology, morphology, syntax or semantics. The notion of marking is based primarily on the presence or absence of some particular elements of form in which the lexemes, which contain the elements, are said to be marked (formally) for the opposition, in contrast with the unmarked number of each pair, which lacks the element in question. For examples, the lexemes:
Lion (unmarked), Lioness (marked), and
Host (unmarked), Hostess (marked) (Lyons 307)