What is a marker?

A marker is a lexical item that signals a morphosyntactic operation.

• The suffix -s added to a noun signals plurality, as in the following example:

  three hats

• The suffix -s added to a verb signals third person, singular, present tense, as in the following example:

  he sees

Pei and Gaynor 1954 132

Context for this page:

• Concept module: marker
• In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): M
• In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
• In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004

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