Markedness

Markedness is a specific kind of asymmetry relationship between elements of linguistic or conceptual structure. In a marked/unmarked relation, one term of an opposition is the broader, dominant one. The dominant default or minimum effort form is known as the 'unmarked' term and the other, secondary one is the 'marked' term. In other words, it is the characterization of a "normal" linguistic unit (i.e. the unmarked term) compared to the unit's possible "irregular" forms (i.e. the marked term).