Markedness

Markedness is a way of describing how some words or features of language are more special or important than others. An example of markedness is when some families have special traditions that only happen once a year. Those traditions are marked because they are special, and only happen at certain times. In language, some forms of words or features might be marked, meaning that they are more special or important than other forms. For example, in English, the -ed ending is marked because it signals that something happened in the past.