Unmarked Term Research Articles

<i>Denique, demum, tandem</i> y <i>postremo</i>: estudio funcioestructural (con especial referencia a la obra lucreciana)

The logical end of one act or fact is only one, but in human language it is not the same. So, in the Latin system of adverbs there are four words: denique, postremo, tandem and demum that mean the termination of one thing in a different way. Among all of these words and with respect to the end there is a privative opposition: denique, postremo and tandem vs. demum ; the last word is the unmarked term Furthermore, we can find a gradual opposition in the other three adverbs, whose term less marked is denique , and the most one is demum , the only word of the four which always means the real end.

Marking-Reversals and Cultural Importance

Unmarked terms in the lexicon, compared to marked ones, are typically more frequent in use, less complex in form, and acquired earlier by children learning a language. Terms which are unmarked in single languages are often unmarked in all languages; however, marking is not always invariable across languages, or through time within individual languages. The present work focuses on variation in cultural importance as a factor which influences marking. As the importance of a referent changes within a speech community, the marking value of its label alters, often resulting in lexical change. Introductions of previously unknown referents in culture contact situations-e.g. domestic plants and animals-frequently have led to shifts in cultural importance. Such examples illustrate how cultural factors, by influencing the assignment of marking, often play an important role in lexical change.*

Privative opposition as a semantic relation

An attempt is made to define the relation between marked and unmarked terms on a propositional level. Two sentences are in the semantic relation of private opposition if the first sentence, the marked one which has a particular presupposition, entails the second sentence, the unmarked one, and if the second sentence does not entail the presupposition of the marked sentence, or the second sentence presupposes the negation of this presupposition. The relation of privative opposition, so defined can be used to define the notion of proper assertion and to explain some derivations of non-literal meaning.

The Role of Standard Orientations in Children's Drawing of Interpersonal Relationships: Aspects of Graphic Feature Marking

IVES, WILLIAM, and HOUSEWORTH, MARGUERITE. The Role of Standard Orientations in Children's Drawing of Interpersonal Relationships: Aspects of Graphic Feature Marking. CmILD DEVELOPMENT, 1980, 51, 591-593. Aspects of children's early representational drawing ability may provide evidence for feature marking in nonlinguistic symbol systems. To test this assumption, children in kindergarten, second grade, and fourth grade were asked to draw a set of referent objects in 3 conditions: a nominal condition with no implied relationship (2 people, dogs, and horses) and 2 contrastive conditions (the same referents talking to or looking at each other). It was predicted that each object would consistently be represented in a specific standard orientation (front for people and side for horses and dogs) and, at the same time, the side orientation would be used to convey the intended relationships in the contrastive condition. When the object's standard orientation is at variance with the orientation generally used to convey the intended relationship, increased difficulty in graphic communication will occur. The results fit the predicted model, with the major developmental shift in children's ability to graphically differentiate nominal and contrastive conditions occurring between kindergarten and second grade for drawings of horses and dogs and between second and fourth grades for drawings of people. The role played by the standard orientation is seen as analogous to that of the unmarked term in language acquisition.

Height, age, and function: differing influences on children's comprehension of ‘younger’ and ‘older’

ABSTRACTThree investigations of pre-school children's comprehension ofyoungerandolderare discussed. The results suggest that children focus on height (or the lack of the same) in their initial hypotheses about the meanings of the terms, ignoring age and/or function cues. The results also suggest that the acquisition of antonyms which may be characterized as marked–unmarked is not necessarily characterized by the child equating the meaning of the marked and unmarked terms prior to learning the correct meaning of the marked term. These findings are discussed in terms of recent theorizing about lexical-meaning acquisition.

More Evidence for Psychological Correlates of Lexical Marking

25 college students were given a checklist listing names of 25 dimensions, and the lexically marked and unmarked antonyms describing the dimensions, e.g., evaluation: bad, good. Ss were instructed to choose which of each pair was closer in meaning to the dimension name. On 21 of the 25 dimensions, Ss chose the unmarked term, evidence indicating that they were able to utilize information about lexical marking, or some correlate thereof.