| 4. | Linguistics. | a. | (of a phoneme) characterized by the presence of a phonological feature that serves to distinguish it from an otherwise similar phoneme lacking that feature, as (d), which, in contrast to (t), is characterized by the presence of voicing. | | b. | characterized by the presence of a marker indicating the grammatical function of a construction, as the plural in English, which, in contrast to the singular, is typically indicated by the presence of the marker -s. | | c. | specifying an additional element of meaning, in contrast to a semantically related item, as drake in contrast to duck, where drake specifies “male” while duck does not necessarily specify sex. | | d. | occurring less typically than an alternative form, as the word order in Down he fell in contrast to the more usual order of He fell down. Compare unmarked (def. 2). | |
[mahrkt] 
