Abstract
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | PLoS ONE |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| Early online date | 9 Jun 2016 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2016 |
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Keywords
- markedness
- psychology
- linguistic variables
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Exploring the measurement of markedness and its relationship with other linguistic variables. / Ingram, Joanne; Hand, Christopher; Maciejewskie, Greg.
In: PLoS ONE , Vol. 11, No. 6, 06.2016.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
TY - JOUR
T1 - Exploring the measurement of markedness and its relationship with other linguistic variables
AU - Ingram, Joanne
AU - Hand, Christopher
AU - Maciejewskie, Greg
N1 - Accepted: May 25, 2016 Published: June 9, 2016
PY - 2016/6
Y1 - 2016/6
N2 - Antonym pair members can be differentiated by each word’s markedness–that distinction attributable to the presence or absence of features at morphological or semantic levels. Morphologically marked words incorporate their unmarked counterpart with additional morphs (e.g., “unlucky” vs. “lucky”); properties used to determine semantically marked words (e.g., “short” vs. “long”) are less clearly defined. Despite extensive theoretical scrutiny, the lexical properties of markedness have received scant empirical study. The current paper employs an antonym sequencing approach to measure markedness: establishing markedness probabilities for individual words and evaluating their relationship with other lexical properties (e.g., length, frequency, valence). Regression analyses reveal that markedness probability is, as predicted, related to affixation and also strongly related to valence. Our results support the suggestion that antonym sequence is reflected in discourse, and further analysis demonstrates that markedness probabilities, derived from the antonym sequencing task, reflect the ordering of antonyms within natural language. In line with the Pollyanna Hypothesis, we argue that markedness is closely related to valence; language users demonstrate a tendency to present words evaluated positively ahead of those evaluated negatively if given the choice. Future research should consider the relationship of markedness and valence, and the influence of contextual information in determining which member of an antonym pair is marked or unmarked within discourse.
AB - Antonym pair members can be differentiated by each word’s markedness–that distinction attributable to the presence or absence of features at morphological or semantic levels. Morphologically marked words incorporate their unmarked counterpart with additional morphs (e.g., “unlucky” vs. “lucky”); properties used to determine semantically marked words (e.g., “short” vs. “long”) are less clearly defined. Despite extensive theoretical scrutiny, the lexical properties of markedness have received scant empirical study. The current paper employs an antonym sequencing approach to measure markedness: establishing markedness probabilities for individual words and evaluating their relationship with other lexical properties (e.g., length, frequency, valence). Regression analyses reveal that markedness probability is, as predicted, related to affixation and also strongly related to valence. Our results support the suggestion that antonym sequence is reflected in discourse, and further analysis demonstrates that markedness probabilities, derived from the antonym sequencing task, reflect the ordering of antonyms within natural language. In line with the Pollyanna Hypothesis, we argue that markedness is closely related to valence; language users demonstrate a tendency to present words evaluated positively ahead of those evaluated negatively if given the choice. Future research should consider the relationship of markedness and valence, and the influence of contextual information in determining which member of an antonym pair is marked or unmarked within discourse.
KW - markedness
KW - psychology
KW - linguistic variables
U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0157141
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0157141
M3 - Article
VL - 11
JO - PLoS ONE
JF - PLoS ONE
SN - 1932-6203
IS - 6
ER -