On teaching markedness
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Abstract
Markedness is a concept in linguistic theory which often puzzles beginning students when they first encounter it. The basic notion of a feature (or sound or construction or whatever) being more likely to occur than another either cross-linguistically or within a particular language is relatively easy to grasp. However, actual examples of markedness often obscure this notion becasue the same feature can be marked in one context but unmarked in another. Students would be much happier if, for example, they could rely on voicing being always marked or unmarked. This, unfortunately, is not the case. Voicing is marked for non-sonorants but unmarked for sonorants, marked for word-final obstruents but unmarked for (single) intervocalic obstruents, and so forth.
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