Markedness: The Evaluative Superstructure of Language(SUNY series in Linguistics)

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.

Table of Contents:
Preface Permissions Acknowledgments 1. Prolegomenon to a Theory of Markedness Markedness Roman Jakobson: Linguista sum: linguistici nihil a me alienum puto The Mystery of the Word: Opposition and Feature The System of Language: Duality of Patterning and Hierarchization of Structure 2. On Markedness Toward a Theory of Markedness Markedness and Markedness Values Semantic Markedness: Nonequivalence of Signifieds Formal Marking and Distribution Syncretization Prototypes and Best Examples Summary: Diagnostics of the Breadth of Meaning Phonological Markedness The Phonological Features and Markedness Reversals in Phonology Markedness Reversals in Semantics Syntactic Markedness A Theory of Markedness 3. Markedness Principles and the Values of Grammatical Categories Introduction: The Alignment of Units and Contexts Case Oppositions Nominative and Objective Cases The Genitive Elliptical Contexts Zero-Objective and Zero-Nominative Pronouns Reflexive versus Personal Pronouns Singular and Plural in the Pronominal System: The Markedness of Singular Pronouns Person, Gender, and Animacy Summary: Values, Assimilation, and Form-Content Alignment The Verbal Categories: An Introduction Form Categories of the Verb Semantics of the Verbal Categories Finite Indicative Verbs Verbal Aspect The Progressive Mood Distinctions Finiteness and Voice Word Order The Complementarity of Form and Content Summary: Determining Values and Finding Principles 4. Phonology, Morphology, and Morphophonemics The Markedness Values of Phonological Features Markedness Values of the English Consonants The Markedness Assignments of Vowels and Glides Marked and Unmarked Features in English Syllable Onsets and Codas Sound-Meaning Diagrammatization in Morphology and Morphophonemics Universality Revisited Concluding Remarks in Markedness Patterns 5. Markedness and Language Change Markedness in Theories of Language Change Laws of Synchrony and Diachrony Syntactic Naturalness as Complexity Phonotactic Change as Unmarking The Tendency Not to Accumulate Marks Markedness Diagrams as a Goal of Change The Shifting of Second Person Pronoun Forms The Direction of Change 6. Retrospective and Prospectus A Look Back Wider Horizons Right and Left in Symbol Classification The Greeks The Kaguru The Nyoro Markedness Assimilation in Symbol Classification Inversions A Few Final Examples Notes Bibliography Name Index Subject Index

About the Author :
Edwin L. Battistella is Associate Professor of English and Linguistics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Review :
"This work cuts across a large number of theoretical positions and shows how markedness interacts with them. Battistella integrates a great deal of material including new theories of language organization brought into comparison and relationship with older theories in insightful ways." - Margaret E. Winters, Southern Illinois University