Zorica Puškar-Gallien – ZAS Berlin

Markedness in morphosyntax (advanced)

Markedness is a foundational concept in linguistic theory, used to characterize asymmetries between linguistic forms and structures. A marked form is typically understood as being structurally, semantically, or morphologically more complex or specific, while the unmarked form is more general, frequent, or default. This course aims to explore the concept of markedness with particular attention to how it is defined and applied in generative approaches to mophosyntax.

We will examine how markedness is diagnosed and understood in the analysis of grammatical phenomena such as case, agreement, tense, aspect, mood, voice, and argument structure. For example, we may compare marked vs. unmarked case systems, default vs. marked agreement patterns, etc. We will also examine the criteria used to identify markedness (morphophonological, distributional, semantic, or derivational) and how these criteria vary across frameworks.

Engaging with classic and recent literature from generative syntax as well as related work in morphology and semantics, we will consider how markedness is treated in Minimalist approaches (e.g., feature economy, impoverishment), in typological and functionalist traditions (e.g., implicational hierarchies, frequency effects), and in morphosemantic theories that link form to interpretation. The course will invite participants to critically evaluate the explanatory power and limitations of markedness as a theoretical construct and to consider its role in the architecture of grammar.