Functional & Cognitive Explanations Of Markedness In English Clauses

This paper has made tentative explanations of the linguistic phenomenon"markedness"from functional and cognitive perspectives in English clauses.This paper is composed of three chapters. In the first chapter the writer makes a brief review of the development of Markedness Theory and discusses the concept of markedness and the criteria to define the concept. Markedness Theory is one of the important contributions of Prague School to linguistics. The theory is later applied in all branches of linguistics, such as semantics, pragmatics and so on. The concept of markedness has developed from opposition between the presence and absence of a distinctive feature to opposition between formality and informality, between generality and peculiarity, and between regularity and irregularity. There are many criteria to define the concept of markedness and the context-dependence perspective by T. Givon is a typical representative.In chapter two and chapter three the author explains markedness in English clauses from functional and cognitive perspectives respectively. The paper discusses the referential function of markedness in learning and using English clauses, points out the functions of markedness (foregrounding, emphasizing, and keeping clauses coherent and so on) in a marked-theme clause. Additionally, markedness helps us to understand and analyze clauses with special structures. The paper also deals with the communicative function of markedness in oral English.It should be noted that the purpose to explain markedness in clauses from both functional perspective and cognitive perspectives is to interpret the concept of markedness better, more clearly and more reasonably. For example,...