Markedness in Universal Grammar (UG) and Second Language Acquisition

By Manuel Espinal

The author is teacher and journalist

The term “Markedness” is used in Universal Grammar (UG) by generative linguists (as Chomsky) to distinguish common rules in languages (unmarked) from those which are not common (marked).  Markedness, according to “Advanced English Dictionary,” is a linguistic phenomenon of words, forms or phonemes that are considered to be more complicated, less natural or stranger than usual forms. An example for this definition is to use the word comedienne instead of comedian (lexical markedness).

The term, applied by the Russian phonetician Nikolái Serguéievich Trubetskói for the first time and initially reduced to phonetics, is very popular in Universal Grammar’s linguists, because they use it to refer to those rules that speakers from different language can share, for which they apply the word core or unmarked and those rules which are privative of a specific language and consequently cannot be shared by speakers (peripheral or marked).

Let me illustrate this term using several examples from the fact that markedness is used in all language’s areas (phonetics, semantics, pragmatics, Lexicology, morphology, syntax, phonology, etc.)

In morphology, markedness is produced when we inflect or derive a word. For instance, negative words are marked more than positive.

A derivational example might be: realistic (unmarked)/unrealistic (marked)

An inflectional example might be: have► she has (marked)/ speak► she speaks (unmarked)

In phonology, the use of two pronunciations for one word, but one is more used (unmarked) than the other (marked). E.g.: Indirect [ˌɪndɪˈrekt] (marked)/ [ˌɪndaɪˈrekt] (unmarked). The latter case is more used in American English speakers.

Furthermore, we can find markedness, as it is logical, between two languages: English and Spanish, for instance. In these two languages, the dative is the beneficial of the verbal action. Let us see:

*Juan compró un carro para Luis. (unmarked).

*John bought a car for Louis. (unmarked)

The dative (syntactic function) Para Luis or For Louis in both languages is the verbal action recipient or beneficiary, so we can say that this case or rule is unmarked in English as in Spanish. However, there is marked difference for placing the adjective in a sentences or a phrase when modifying a noun. In Spanish, the adjective has no privative position; although the meaning is not the same. But in English, it is grammatically placed before a noun. For example:

·        Mi Viejo amigo, meaning that they have been friend for years.

·        Mi amigo Viejo, referring to the friend’s age. (marked)

·        My old friend, referring to the age. (marked)

But for contextualizing the first Spanish example, in English; we have to specify it with a phrase, because the use of the adjective is inconsistent in both languages. E. g.: My friend of long time.

And so on, we could illustrate as many examples as possible.

As we learn the similarities and contrasts between our native language and the target one, the L2 process of acquisition is easier. That is why; we have to advance in the native and target language learning and raising awareness about our responsibility as teachers, and not disregarding that we must become more proficient learners.