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Meaning and the lexicon
This chapter is in the book Meaning and the lexicon
63 UNMARKED AND MARKED TERMS IN ENGLISH Günter Rohdenburg 1 In his discussion of the major sense relations existing in natural languages, Lyons (1977:305-311) devotes a special section to the relationship between so-called unmarked and marked terms. This is illustrated by pairs such as 'dog':'bitch' and 'lion':'lioness'1. According to Lyons, semantic marking involves a binary contrast or opposition with the two terms being either marked or unmarked according to one dimension. The contrast is neutralised in some contexts such as male dog' or 'female dog'. In other contexts including (1), (2) and (3) the two terms are incompatible with each other. (1) A: Is it a dog? B: No, it is a bitch. (2) Is it a dog or a bitch? (3) It is a dog, not a bitch. The unmarked term dog' may be considered to be superordinate to itself as well as to the marked term bitch' (Lyons, 1977:308). Accordingly, we shall distinguish between a general and a specific sense of the unmarked term. All the examples discussed by Lyons concern the lexicalisation of the distinction of sex in animals and human beings. Lyons (1977:311) is, however, aware that the phenomenon is not peculiar to this distinction and that semantic marking is a complex and controversial subject. The present paper attempts to explore some of the complexities anticipated by Lyons. Above all, I would suggest that the concept of semantic marking (if it is to be retained at all) should be extended to cover a far wider range of phenomena than has been envisaged by Lyons. 2.1 An obvious extension is provided by the lexicalisation of other dimensions than the sex distinction. The dimensions of greatest importance to semantic marking in English and other European languages include those of age, size and professional seniority. Some potential contrasts that appear to involve nothing or little more than these dimensions are listed in (4)-(6). (4) cat - kitten, dog - puppy, horse - foal, sheep - lamb, duck -duckling, goose - gosling, pig - piglet, lion - cub, tree - sapling, plant - seedling (5) horse - pony, onion - shallot (6) executive officer - senior executive officer, lecturer - senior lecturer 1 In these and all similar examples to follow the unmarked term always precedes the marked term(s).
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Munich/Boston

63 UNMARKED AND MARKED TERMS IN ENGLISH Günter Rohdenburg 1 In his discussion of the major sense relations existing in natural languages, Lyons (1977:305-311) devotes a special section to the relationship between so-called unmarked and marked terms. This is illustrated by pairs such as 'dog':'bitch' and 'lion':'lioness'1. According to Lyons, semantic marking involves a binary contrast or opposition with the two terms being either marked or unmarked according to one dimension. The contrast is neutralised in some contexts such as male dog' or 'female dog'. In other contexts including (1), (2) and (3) the two terms are incompatible with each other. (1) A: Is it a dog? B: No, it is a bitch. (2) Is it a dog or a bitch? (3) It is a dog, not a bitch. The unmarked term dog' may be considered to be superordinate to itself as well as to the marked term bitch' (Lyons, 1977:308). Accordingly, we shall distinguish between a general and a specific sense of the unmarked term. All the examples discussed by Lyons concern the lexicalisation of the distinction of sex in animals and human beings. Lyons (1977:311) is, however, aware that the phenomenon is not peculiar to this distinction and that semantic marking is a complex and controversial subject. The present paper attempts to explore some of the complexities anticipated by Lyons. Above all, I would suggest that the concept of semantic marking (if it is to be retained at all) should be extended to cover a far wider range of phenomena than has been envisaged by Lyons. 2.1 An obvious extension is provided by the lexicalisation of other dimensions than the sex distinction. The dimensions of greatest importance to semantic marking in English and other European languages include those of age, size and professional seniority. Some potential contrasts that appear to involve nothing or little more than these dimensions are listed in (4)-(6). (4) cat - kitten, dog - puppy, horse - foal, sheep - lamb, duck -duckling, goose - gosling, pig - piglet, lion - cub, tree - sapling, plant - seedling (5) horse - pony, onion - shallot (6) executive officer - senior executive officer, lecturer - senior lecturer 1 In these and all similar examples to follow the unmarked term always precedes the marked term(s).
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Munich/Boston

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter 1
  2. PREFACE 5
  3. CONTENTS 7
  4. SECTION 1. WORD FORMATION, LEXICAL SEMANTIC RELATIONS
  5. METAPHOR AS A BASIC MEANS OF EXTENDING THE LEXICON* ( ABSTRACT ) 13
  6. SUBSYNTACTIC LINGUISTIC SIGNS WITH REFERENTIAL VS TEXTPREDICATIVE FUNCTION 14
  7. DEVERBAL ADJECTIVES IN DUTCH EXPRESSING AN INCLINATION 20
  8. LEXICAL CONCEPTS 29
  9. FUNCTIONAL COMPOSITION AND COMPLEMENT INHERITANCE 39
  10. THE SEMANTICS AND DYNAMICS OF DERIVATION 49
  11. TYPES, DISTRIBUTION AND FUNCTIONS OF COVERT SEMANTIC RELATIONS IN COMPLEX LEXICAL ITEMS AND IN COMBINATIONS OF LEXICAL ITEMS 55
  12. UNMARKED AND MARKED TERMS IN ENGLISH 63
  13. SECTION 2. WORD RECOGNITION, LEXICAL PRIMING, AND RELATED MATTERS
  14. PERFORMANCE MEASURES OF LEXICAL COMPLEXITY (ABSTRACT) 75
  15. MORPHOLOGICAL MEANING AND THE STRUCTURE OF THE MENTAL LEXICON 76
  16. SEMANTIC PRIMING: EXPERIMENTAL DISSOCIATION OF ASPECTS OF MEANING ( ABSTRACT ) 86
  17. MEMORY FOR MEANING AND SURFACE STRUCTURE IN CONVERSATIONS 88
  18. READING COMPREHENSION IN A CASE OF GLOBAL APHASIA 98
  19. SEMANTIC DECOMPOSITION AND WORD RECOGNITION 108
  20. WORD RECOGNITION AND PRIMING WITH PHYSICALLY SIMILAR WORDS 115
  21. CHILDREN'S RECOGNITION OF FUNCTION WORDS 124
  22. SECTION 3. SPECIFIC WORDS, WORD CLASSES, AND EXPRESSION TYPES
  23. THE STRUCTURE OF A SEMANTIC FIELD: VERBS OF VISUAL PERCEPTION IN GERMAN AND FRENCH 135
  24. LEXICAL STRUCTURES INDUCED BY LIKENESS OF MEANING.SEMANTIC ANALYSIS OF GERMAN VERBS OF SEEING 143
  25. VERBS OF AUDITORY PERCEPTION IN GERMAN 164
  26. DEPENDENCY GRAMMAR, VALENCE AND THE BILINGUAL LEXICON 170
  27. PRACTICAL AND THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF LEXICAL ENTRIES FOR VERBS OF COMMUNICATION 179
  28. LEXICAL MEANING VERSUS CONTEXTUAL MEANING OF CERTAIN DERIVED LEXICAL ITEMS: INFINITIVES REVISITED 185
  29. LEXICAL STRUCTURES IN ENGLISH FREE ADJUNCT 190
  30. ON THE SEMANTICS OF THOSE GERMAN ADJECTIVES WHICH INVOLVE COMPARISON 200
  31. MORE AND LESS REVISITED: NONVERBAL PREFERENCES DO NOT EXPLAIN VERBAL CHOICES 205
  32. EQUALITY AND INEQUALITY 213
  33. THE ADVERSATIVE CONJUNCTION IN SEMANTIC THEORY AND IN THE LEXICON (ABSTRACT) 224
  34. THE LINGUISTICS AND PSYCHOLINGUISTICS OF SECONDARY SPATIAL DEIXIS 225
  35. SECTION 4. LEXICAL MATTERS IN RELATION WITH CONTEXT AND DISCOURSE
  36. PROCESSING CONSTRAINTS IN LEXICAL DISAMBIGUATION 239
  37. INTERPRETING UNAMBIGUOUS WORDS DURING SENTENCE COMPREHENSION 245
  38. LEXICAL MEANING CONTEXTUALIZED 251
  39. SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE SEMANTICS OF NATURAL DIALOGUE 259
  40. CAPTURING IMPORTANCE IN NATURAL LANGUAGE: AN HPN-BASED APPROACH 267
  41. A MECHANISM FOR THE ACCUMULATION AND APPLICATION OF CONTEXT IN TEXT PROCESSING 285
  42. INCONSISTENCY IN SEMANTIC INTERPRETATION 294
  43. ON CONTEXTUAL CONSTRAINTS OF SOME CONDITIONAL CONJUNCTIONS 302
  44. ON THE UNDERSTANDING OF BECAUSE SENTENCES (ABSTRACT) 308
  45. ON THE SEMANTICS OF UNLESS 309
  46. COHERENCE-ORIENTED LEXICON STRUCTURES AND TEXT-BASED SEMANTIC REPRESENTATION OF LEXEMES. AN OUTLINE OF COAT 317
  47. PRONOUN REFERENCE RESOLUTION AND THE BONDING-EFFECT 326
  48. SECTION 5. REPRESENTATION OF LINGUISTIC AND FACTUAL KNOWLEGDE
  49. THE LEXICON OF " LIVING " SPACE 335
  50. NOUN RANKING AND THE VI -1 BI - INVERSION IN PLAINS APACHE 341
  51. IS THERE SUCH A THING AS A LEXICON IN MODELS OF LINGUISTIC COMPREHENSION? 346
  52. DIACHRONIC EXTENSIONS OF PROTOTYPE THEORY 354
  53. GRADEDNESS AND CONCEPTUAL CONJUNCTION 363
  54. EXPLAINING A WORD TO A CHILD: LEXICAL MEANING IN NATURAL INTERACTION 370
  55. MEANING WITHOUT LEXICON: A COMPUTATIONAL MODEL FOR THE RESOLUTION OF LEXICAL AMBIGUITIES. PSYCHOLOGICAL RELEVANCE 380
  56. THE SEMANTIC STABILITY OF MEDICAL TERMS 384
  57. LEXICAL RELEVANCE AND SEMANTIC DISPOSITION. ON STEREOTYPE WORD MEANING REPRESENTATION IN PROCEDURAL SEMANTICS 387
  58. FRAME-EXTRACTION BY COMPUTER IN LEXICOGRAPHIC RESEARCH 401
  59. SEMANTIC NETWORKS AND THE LEXICON 407
  60. SECTION 6. STRUCTURE OF THE LEXICON, MATTERS OF LEXICON THEORY
  61. CONCEPT FORMATION, TRUTH, AND NORM 417
  62. PROLEGOMENA TO A DYNAMIC THEORY OF THE LEXICON 425
  63. MEANING - WITHOUT RULES TO PROVIDE IT 433
  64. THE LEXICON AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE FOR A THEORY OF LANGUAGE (ABSTRACT) 438
  65. THE STRUCTURE OF THE LEXICON (ABSTRACT) 440
  66. TOWARDS A CONVERGENCE BETWEEN LEXICAL AND FORMAL SEMANTICS? 444
  67. BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE - INSIDE OR OUTSIDE THE WHALE? 452
  68. LEXICAL TAXONOMIES 458
  69. AN EMERGENCE VIEW OF MEANING 471
  70. LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS 479
  71. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES 483
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https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111647425-009

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter 1
  2. PREFACE 5
  3. CONTENTS 7
  4. SECTION 1. WORD FORMATION, LEXICAL SEMANTIC RELATIONS
  5. METAPHOR AS A BASIC MEANS OF EXTENDING THE LEXICON* ( ABSTRACT ) 13
  6. SUBSYNTACTIC LINGUISTIC SIGNS WITH REFERENTIAL VS TEXTPREDICATIVE FUNCTION 14
  7. DEVERBAL ADJECTIVES IN DUTCH EXPRESSING AN INCLINATION 20
  8. LEXICAL CONCEPTS 29
  9. FUNCTIONAL COMPOSITION AND COMPLEMENT INHERITANCE 39
  10. THE SEMANTICS AND DYNAMICS OF DERIVATION 49
  11. TYPES, DISTRIBUTION AND FUNCTIONS OF COVERT SEMANTIC RELATIONS IN COMPLEX LEXICAL ITEMS AND IN COMBINATIONS OF LEXICAL ITEMS 55
  12. UNMARKED AND MARKED TERMS IN ENGLISH 63
  13. SECTION 2. WORD RECOGNITION, LEXICAL PRIMING, AND RELATED MATTERS
  14. PERFORMANCE MEASURES OF LEXICAL COMPLEXITY (ABSTRACT) 75
  15. MORPHOLOGICAL MEANING AND THE STRUCTURE OF THE MENTAL LEXICON 76
  16. SEMANTIC PRIMING: EXPERIMENTAL DISSOCIATION OF ASPECTS OF MEANING ( ABSTRACT ) 86
  17. MEMORY FOR MEANING AND SURFACE STRUCTURE IN CONVERSATIONS 88
  18. READING COMPREHENSION IN A CASE OF GLOBAL APHASIA 98
  19. SEMANTIC DECOMPOSITION AND WORD RECOGNITION 108
  20. WORD RECOGNITION AND PRIMING WITH PHYSICALLY SIMILAR WORDS 115
  21. CHILDREN'S RECOGNITION OF FUNCTION WORDS 124
  22. SECTION 3. SPECIFIC WORDS, WORD CLASSES, AND EXPRESSION TYPES
  23. THE STRUCTURE OF A SEMANTIC FIELD: VERBS OF VISUAL PERCEPTION IN GERMAN AND FRENCH 135
  24. LEXICAL STRUCTURES INDUCED BY LIKENESS OF MEANING.SEMANTIC ANALYSIS OF GERMAN VERBS OF SEEING 143
  25. VERBS OF AUDITORY PERCEPTION IN GERMAN 164
  26. DEPENDENCY GRAMMAR, VALENCE AND THE BILINGUAL LEXICON 170
  27. PRACTICAL AND THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF LEXICAL ENTRIES FOR VERBS OF COMMUNICATION 179
  28. LEXICAL MEANING VERSUS CONTEXTUAL MEANING OF CERTAIN DERIVED LEXICAL ITEMS: INFINITIVES REVISITED 185
  29. LEXICAL STRUCTURES IN ENGLISH FREE ADJUNCT 190
  30. ON THE SEMANTICS OF THOSE GERMAN ADJECTIVES WHICH INVOLVE COMPARISON 200
  31. MORE AND LESS REVISITED: NONVERBAL PREFERENCES DO NOT EXPLAIN VERBAL CHOICES 205
  32. EQUALITY AND INEQUALITY 213
  33. THE ADVERSATIVE CONJUNCTION IN SEMANTIC THEORY AND IN THE LEXICON (ABSTRACT) 224
  34. THE LINGUISTICS AND PSYCHOLINGUISTICS OF SECONDARY SPATIAL DEIXIS 225
  35. SECTION 4. LEXICAL MATTERS IN RELATION WITH CONTEXT AND DISCOURSE
  36. PROCESSING CONSTRAINTS IN LEXICAL DISAMBIGUATION 239
  37. INTERPRETING UNAMBIGUOUS WORDS DURING SENTENCE COMPREHENSION 245
  38. LEXICAL MEANING CONTEXTUALIZED 251
  39. SOME OBSERVATIONS ON THE SEMANTICS OF NATURAL DIALOGUE 259
  40. CAPTURING IMPORTANCE IN NATURAL LANGUAGE: AN HPN-BASED APPROACH 267
  41. A MECHANISM FOR THE ACCUMULATION AND APPLICATION OF CONTEXT IN TEXT PROCESSING 285
  42. INCONSISTENCY IN SEMANTIC INTERPRETATION 294
  43. ON CONTEXTUAL CONSTRAINTS OF SOME CONDITIONAL CONJUNCTIONS 302
  44. ON THE UNDERSTANDING OF BECAUSE SENTENCES (ABSTRACT) 308
  45. ON THE SEMANTICS OF UNLESS 309
  46. COHERENCE-ORIENTED LEXICON STRUCTURES AND TEXT-BASED SEMANTIC REPRESENTATION OF LEXEMES. AN OUTLINE OF COAT 317
  47. PRONOUN REFERENCE RESOLUTION AND THE BONDING-EFFECT 326
  48. SECTION 5. REPRESENTATION OF LINGUISTIC AND FACTUAL KNOWLEGDE
  49. THE LEXICON OF " LIVING " SPACE 335
  50. NOUN RANKING AND THE VI -1 BI - INVERSION IN PLAINS APACHE 341
  51. IS THERE SUCH A THING AS A LEXICON IN MODELS OF LINGUISTIC COMPREHENSION? 346
  52. DIACHRONIC EXTENSIONS OF PROTOTYPE THEORY 354
  53. GRADEDNESS AND CONCEPTUAL CONJUNCTION 363
  54. EXPLAINING A WORD TO A CHILD: LEXICAL MEANING IN NATURAL INTERACTION 370
  55. MEANING WITHOUT LEXICON: A COMPUTATIONAL MODEL FOR THE RESOLUTION OF LEXICAL AMBIGUITIES. PSYCHOLOGICAL RELEVANCE 380
  56. THE SEMANTIC STABILITY OF MEDICAL TERMS 384
  57. LEXICAL RELEVANCE AND SEMANTIC DISPOSITION. ON STEREOTYPE WORD MEANING REPRESENTATION IN PROCEDURAL SEMANTICS 387
  58. FRAME-EXTRACTION BY COMPUTER IN LEXICOGRAPHIC RESEARCH 401
  59. SEMANTIC NETWORKS AND THE LEXICON 407
  60. SECTION 6. STRUCTURE OF THE LEXICON, MATTERS OF LEXICON THEORY
  61. CONCEPT FORMATION, TRUTH, AND NORM 417
  62. PROLEGOMENA TO A DYNAMIC THEORY OF THE LEXICON 425
  63. MEANING - WITHOUT RULES TO PROVIDE IT 433
  64. THE LEXICON AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE FOR A THEORY OF LANGUAGE (ABSTRACT) 438
  65. THE STRUCTURE OF THE LEXICON (ABSTRACT) 440
  66. TOWARDS A CONVERGENCE BETWEEN LEXICAL AND FORMAL SEMANTICS? 444
  67. BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE - INSIDE OR OUTSIDE THE WHALE? 452
  68. LEXICAL TAXONOMIES 458
  69. AN EMERGENCE VIEW OF MEANING 471
  70. LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS 479
  71. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES 483
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