Zero-marking language
Encyclopedia
A zero-marking language
is one where there tend to be no grammatical marks
on either the dependents or modifiers
or the heads
or nuclei showing the relationship between different constituents of a phrase.
Pervasive zero marking is very rare, but instances of zero marking in various forms do occur in quite a number of languages. In many East and Southeast Asian languages, such as Thai
and Vietnamese
, the head verb
and its dependents are not marked for any arguments or for the noun
s' roles in the sentence.
Some languages use a similar process, called "juxtaposition" in linguistic jargon, to indicate possessive relationships. The rarity of pervasive zero marking is because languages with juxtaposition have very much higher levels of inflection
than languages with zero marking in noun phrases, so that the two almost never overlap.
Zero-marking, where it does occur, tends to show a strong relationship with word order. Languages where zero-marking is widespread are almost all subject–verb–object. This is perhaps because verb-medial order allows two or more noun
s to be recognised as such much more easily than either subject–object–verb or verb–subject–object order where two nouns might be adjacent and therefore their role in a sentence possibly confused. It has been suggested that verb-final languages may be likely to develop verb-medial order if marking on nouns is lost.
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
is one where there tend to be no grammatical marks
Marker (linguistics)
In linguistics, a marker is a free or bound morpheme that indicates the grammatical function of the marked word, phrase, or sentence. In analytic languages and agglutinative languages, markers are generally easily distinguished. In fusional languages and polysynthetic languages, this is often not...
on either the dependents or modifiers
Grammatical modifier
In grammar, a modifier is an optional element in phrase structure or clause structure; the removal of the modifier typically doesn't affect the grammaticality of the sentence....
or the heads
Head (linguistics)
In linguistics, the head is the word that determines the syntactic type of the phrase of which it is a member, or analogously the stem that determines the semantic category of a compound of which it is a component. The other elements modify the head....
or nuclei showing the relationship between different constituents of a phrase.
Pervasive zero marking is very rare, but instances of zero marking in various forms do occur in quite a number of languages. In many East and Southeast Asian languages, such as Thai
Thai language
Thai , also known as Central Thai and Siamese, is the national and official language of Thailand and the native language of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai–Kadai language family. Historical linguists have been unable to definitively...
and Vietnamese
Vietnamese language
Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...
, the head verb
Verb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
and its dependents are not marked for any arguments or for the noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
s' roles in the sentence.
Some languages use a similar process, called "juxtaposition" in linguistic jargon, to indicate possessive relationships. The rarity of pervasive zero marking is because languages with juxtaposition have very much higher levels of inflection
Inflection
In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
than languages with zero marking in noun phrases, so that the two almost never overlap.
Zero-marking, where it does occur, tends to show a strong relationship with word order. Languages where zero-marking is widespread are almost all subject–verb–object. This is perhaps because verb-medial order allows two or more noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
s to be recognised as such much more easily than either subject–object–verb or verb–subject–object order where two nouns might be adjacent and therefore their role in a sentence possibly confused. It has been suggested that verb-final languages may be likely to develop verb-medial order if marking on nouns is lost.
See also
- Dependent-marking languageDependent-marking languageA dependent-marking language is one where the grammatical marks showing relations between different constituents of a phrase tend to be placed on the dependents or modifiers, rather than the heads of the phrase in question. In a noun phrase, the head is the main noun and the dependents are the...
- Double-marking languageDouble-marking languageA double-marking language is one where the grammatical marks showing relations between different constituents of a phrase tend to be placed on both the heads of the phrase in question, and on the modifiers or dependents...
- Head-marking languageHead-marking languageA head-marking language is one where the grammatical marks showing relations between different constituents of a phrase tend to be placed on the heads of the phrase in question, rather than the modifiers or dependents. In a noun phrase, the head is the main noun and the dependents are the...