Home » MARKEDNESS THEORY: A SEMANTIC INVESTIGATION ON THE USE OF WORDS “RECOMMEND” AND “ADVOCATE” IN DIFFERENT TEXTS

MARKEDNESS THEORY: A SEMANTIC INVESTIGATION ON THE USE OF WORDS “RECOMMEND” AND “ADVOCATE” IN DIFFERENT TEXTS

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Harbi Barkad Aden, University of Djibouti

Introduction

The markedness theory was primarily proposed by Prague scholars and later on, attracted the attempts of so many applied linguists. The markedness theory is initially explored in phonology (how do phonemes change the meaning of words) with the aim to explain markedness in phonemic contrast (Yan-qui, 2015). For instance, markedness in linguistics typically “refers to the way words are changed or added to give a special meaning” whereas unmarked reflects the normal and first derived meaning that a word has (Trubetzkoy, 1969).

Background

Since the introduction of the markedness theory by Prague scholars, various papers are done. Briefly, the theory refers to a contrast between two or more members of a category such as, number, case, tense. One of them is called “marked” if it contains more additional affix, while “unmarked” does not. Since then, the present study deals with the issue of the markedness theory.

In extension, according to Yan-qui, the markedness theory underlines that, in languages, certain elements are more basic, natural, and frequent (unmarked) than others which are referred to as the marked. As Leech (2006: 4) observes “Where there is a contrast between two or more members of a category one of them is called marked as opposed to the unmarked”.

Words in a language may possess their real, consistent meanings while they may underline additional meanings varying with their contextual in use.

Since markedness theory used to emphasise in the field of phonology, today with the constant studies and efforts attempted by many scholars, the theory gets a widen and deepen application in so many various domains such as semantics, pragmatics and psycholinguistics. Applied linguists like Lyons (1995) argued that the study on markedness touches not only the structural form of language, but also the implicit meaning of language. In semantics, marked word is more than unmarked word e.g: the word actress is semantically specific than actor.

Mainly advocated by two conceptions, word in a language carries either one single, very appropriate denotation meaning or multitude of meanings generally based on its contextual in use. Pragmatic references, cultural background, interpretations often alter and affect the real meaning of a word. The minimalist theory, however, suggests that a word has only one specific meaning whereas the maximalist theory suggests that a word actually has various meanings. Regarding the issue of the markedness theory, the Columbian school of semantic believes that the meaning of a word, its greater part comes from its contextual meaning.

The aim of the present study is to contrast two words in order to explore their similarities, differences and their variance and invariance meanings.

Methods

Based on the task of contrasting two words, in this study, we are going to compare two verbs such as; “Advocate” and “Recommend”. Different sources are used to collect examples where these two words are used. In general, five examples (texts) are provided for each word (see the appendix).

Question: Is Advocate different from Recommend?

Basically, the study will try to work on these two words in terms of their similarities, differences, and their variance and invariance meanings.

Explanation

“Recommend” and “advocate” share almost the same lexical meaning but they may have some divergences too when using them. For instance, the invariance meaning of the verb “recommend” is typically, “to push someone to do something”. This latter can be as an advice or an order. In fact, as every word has a connotation part, varying with its contextual meanings, “recommend” has, therefore, variance meanings that may change from one to another.

For example, in text 1, the use of “recommend” does not symbolise any request that a person asks to another, but Campbell (the writer) just stresses how good opinion it is the fact of planning to open an American consulate in the northern city of Kano.

Brief, the variance meaning of “recommend” in text1 conveys “how much something is suitable or good for a particular purpose”

Compared to other texts, the use of “recommend” in text 3 reflects in somehow an order given by the prosecutors that Miss Park must be arrested as soon as possible.

In text 5 also, “recommend” underlines that president Hollande has ordered and declared to the authorities an emergency state for 72 hours. In a broader one, the invariance meaning of “recommend” is generally, to deliver or give speech, intending to ask someone to do something for you. As it can be observed in text 3 and text 5, the fact of recommending something is more “powerful” than that of advocating.

We may use the verb “advocate” as the same meaning as “recommend” but generally we have to make sure that advocate differs from “recommend” in their variance meanings. The invariance meaning of the verb “advocate” conveys “the act of speaking/pleading or arguing in favour of something” For example, in text 6 the use of “advocate” clearly underlines action of pleading publicly either in a courtroom or elsewhere. On the other hand, the variance meaning of “advocate” is very varied and in some extent, it takes the form of a noun. In text 8, the meaning of “advocateˮ is to emphasize how much something is needed importantly and highly support in favour that UK and UE should stay and work together.

In text 10, unlike other meanings, “advocate” is used as the same as a “decision” taken by the US department of foreign affairs to deploy an amount of money to help Somali people in famine.

Similarities

Although “recommend” and “advocate” differ in terms of variance, they share some similarities of conveying messages. Basically, what they underline is that; both the verbs are used to express or deliver a speech or what we think about something. According to their contextual meanings, this delivery may be a request, order, pleading and so on.

Differences

Indeed, “recommend” and “advocate” have some divergences too. More commonly, the verb “advocate” with some connotations, is used in judicial domain for pleading something while you are in a trial, courtroom, defending someone, pleading for apologize overtly.

“Recommend” may not reflect this kind of meaning, but “advocate” interestingly, takes sometimes the form of a noun. With their different variance meanings, “advocate” compared to “recommend” is more generally used for pleading, asking forgiveness, apologize and so on. “Advocate” has therefore, the forwardly opportunity to be used in judicial domain, whereas “recommend” is not much more used in that area.

Appendix

Recommend

Text 1: “Washington should follow a short-term strategy that presses Abuja to end its gross human rights abuses, conduct credible national elections in 2015, and meet the immediate needs of refugees and persons internally displaced by fighting in the northeast,” Campbell adds. He also recommends that the Obama administration revive plans to open a consulate in the northern city of Kano in order to improve U.S. outreach to that region’s predominantly Muslim population”.

John Campel, 2014 “U S policy to counter Nigeria‟s Boko Haram”

Text 2: There have been reforms intended to make inroads into these issues, including a package known as the Macron law, named after Emmanuel Macron, one of the presidential candidates when he was economy minister. The IMF has welcomed this but says more is needed. Then there is the 35-hour working week. It doesn’t ban long hours, but is a threshold which triggers overtime payments. Critics think it raises costs for employers, supporters that it protects workers and recommends employers to hire more people.

Andrew Walker 20 April 2017 “French election 2017: The economic challenge” www.bbc.com

Text 3: The former leader abused her power by collecting money from businesses and violating the freedom of corporate management, the prosecutors’ office had said when requesting the warrant, she denied the allegations against her at an earlier questioning and could destroy evidence unless detained, they explained. In light of the court’s decision, prosecutors immediately recommended a detention, making her the third former South Korean president to be arrested. Roh Tae-woo and Chun Doo-hwan were arrested in 1995. Park maintained her innocence at a hearing that began Thursday at the Seoul Central District Court. She is the first former president to attend a hearing on her own potential arrest.

Hiroshi Minegishi March 31, 2017 “South Korean scandal reaches climax with arrest of Park; Former president faces string of charges” Nikkei Asian Review

Text 4: The abdication is expected to take place in 2018, though the government plans to determine the precise timing via ordinance. Work on determining the era name for the incoming emperor’s reign will be accelerated shortly after the law passes. The report recommended using the historical title of joko for the emperor after he steps down, with Empress Michiko to be referred to as jokogo. The panel stipulated that the retired emperor should not be in the line of succession or be able to serve as regent, to ensure there is no overlap with the powers and symbolic duties of his successor.

Hiroshi April 22, 2017 “Japan moving toward 2018 abdication for emperor; Panel’s final report supports one-time law handing all duties to new monarch” Nikkei Asian Review

Text 5: The International Federation for Human Rights warned in a recent report: “France is now in a situation where an „exceptional‟ regime is becoming permanent, in the name of combating terrorism. But there is little evidence that this approach is working and it comes at a cost to fundamental rights.” Hollande visited all six of the sites over the weekend where people were killed in the attacks last year. Notre Dame Cathedral held a special commemorative Mass on Sunday evening. Across the Seine River, mourners, tourists and residents streamed to the Bataclan concert hall, where 90 people were killed by three attackers who also took hostages. President Hollande quickly recommended 72 hours of emergency state and the French flag was at half-mast in the entire territory. The concert hall reopened Saturday night with an emotional concert by Sting.

CBS NEWS November 14, 2016 “Year after Paris attacks, France stuck with “climate of fear”? http://www.cbsnews.com

Advocate

Text 6: An American woman has advocated in the courtroom that the government should deal the problem lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American women. It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning that women suffered in the middle of the twentieth century in the United Stated. Each suburban wife struggled with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children, chauffeured cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at night- she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question- “Is this all?”

Betty Friedan, 1963: p 11 “The Feminine Mystique”

Text 7: Oil prices sank to a low of around $28 last January amid a two-year price slump. Since late 2016, however, prices have partially rebounded, with Brent crude now trading around $52 a barrel compared to last year’s average of $45. Minister of State Mohammed Al sheikh said Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who serves as chairman of the Council for Economic and Development affairs, advocated the reinstatement of allowances after an official review and better-than-expected budgetary performance in the first quarter of 2017.

Ali Abdelaty, Sami Aboudi and Katie Paul; “Writing by Tom Finn 23 April 2017: Saudi King restores civil service and military allowances” wwwthestar.com.my The Star online

Text 8: The managing director of the International Monetary Fund has made an impassioned plea for Britain to stay in the EU, saying Brexit would spell the painful breakdown of a “long marriage” with grave risks for the global economy. Christine Lagarde advocated politicians to “rise above the domestic circle”, and said she personally leaned towards the UK and the EU “staying together and working it out”. Lagarde, who has already called for the UK to remain part of the EU, drew on the 28-nation bloc‟s history to call for continued unity. “Keeping Europe together after what it has gone through is a huge asset that has been vastly under-estimated.”

Neate and Allen 14 April 2016: “IMF chief issues impassioned plea for Britain to stay in UE” www.theguardian.com

Text 9: Julie Bishop, after she said the rogue nation would be subject to further Australian sanctions and for “spouting a string of rubbish against the DPRK over its entirely just steps for self-defence”. Bishop had said this week on the ABC‟s AM program that North Korea‟s nuclear weapons program posed a “serious threat” to Australia unless it was stopped by the international community. She said the sanctions were to send “the clearest possible message to North Korea, that its behaviour will not be tolerated, that a nuclear-armed North Korea is not acceptable to our region”. She also advocated China to step up pressure on North Korea to stamp out its belligerent and illegal behaviour.

Australian Associated Press Sunday 23 April 2017; “North Korea warns Australia of possible nuclear strike if it ‘blindly toes US line” www.theguardian.com

Text 10: More than £50M has been raised by individual donors in the UK and the British government has contributed another £110M to help avert hundreds of thousands of deaths in Somalia. More than six million people there are in need of immediate assistance, with half of them facing famine. Aftermath of his election, Somalia new president Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed has met president Trump to raise actions for helping the threats that Al-sahabab have in the region. US department of foreign affairs advocated to deploy one million US dollars to help people ravaged by the worst drought and hunger for more than one decade.

Jason Burke in Mogadishu 23 April 2017 Trump‟s offensive to „wipe out‟ al-Shabaab threatens more pain for Somalis” www.theguradian.com

Conclusion

All in all, with the joint efforts of scholars, the Markedness Theory accomplishes a great enhance in linguistic areas and it is applied by a countless number of researchers. Theories and hypotheses were generated to deal with the Markedness Theory. Last, based on the findings of this work, it can be drawn that in every single language either spoken or written, words with their similarities may share some common points on conveying messages. It is believed that a word does not have a single meaning to convey message but with its contextual meaning too, word carries out endless number of messages. Words are actually in relations. It is by comparing and contrasting that we can have opposite things.
Finally, the bigger a word, the lesser of variance meaning it possesses.

REFERENCES

Leech. G. (2006). A Glossary of English Grammar. Edinburgh University Press,

Lyons, J. (1995). Linguistic semantics: An introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Trubetzkoy, N. S. (1969). Principles of phonology. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Yan-qiu. Z. (2015). Study on Markedness Theory. Sino-US English Teaching V 12. N 9. P667- 671

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