Markedness And Frequency: A Computational Analysis

When the markedness analysis is extended to the lex ica l and grammatical l eve ls , the question ar ises whether an analogue of the markedness/frequency co r re la t i on , observed in phonology, also exists on these higher l i n g u i s t i c leve ls . This a r t i c l e presents evidence that in some in teres t ing cases, such as tense and aspect forms in English, the cor re la t ion does not hold and that th is f a i l u r e is due not simply to super f ic ia l s t y l i s t i c factors but rather to the i n a b i l i t y of the markedness hypothesis to provide an adequate framework for the analysis of the English verbal system.