Markedness and language change

'Markedness' is a key concept in linguistic theory, and this book offers a comprehensive survey of markedness relations across various grammatical categories, using a sample of over 100 Romani dialects. These dialects, collected through the Romani Morpho-Syntax (RMS) Database, illustrate language change phenomena as they are oral languages that have evolved over six centuries, influenced by diverse contact languages. The book adopts a typological approach to markedness, viewing it as a hierarchy among values shaped by conceptual and cognitive universals. It introduces a functional-pragmatic perspective, presenting markedness as a grammaticalized strategy for prioritizing information. This prioritization is dynamic, influenced by the interplay of category values, the grammatical structures they inhabit, and the strategies employed. The work surveys around 20 categories (e.g., Person, Number, Gender) and their formal representations across grammatical structures. It systematically examines various criteria for markedness, such as Complexity and Differentiation, in relation to each category's values. The findings provide a clearer understanding of how markedness criteria cluster for specific categories, enhancing the previously vague notion of markedness. Additionally, the book explores borrowing and its connection to markedness, offering fresh insights into the motivations behind contact-induced change.