Marked Signifier is a term that indicates that a signifier or sign vehicle is marked – qualified or modified in some way. Linguist and semiotician Roman Jakobson developed the theory of marking.
For example, the verbal signifier “cat” in the singular is unmarked, and the plural “cats” is marked with the “s” at the end of the word.
The way in which marking is used today affects the ideological dimension of human communication or discourse; it means a dimension that relies on power relations within a culture or in a narrower context (such as church or business).
The postmodernists believe (or at least claim) that when one is to say “female judge” the utterer, by marking the “judge” as being female is, in a way, diminishing her status as such. What is more, they also claim that due to that the non-marked signifier “judge” is referring to a white male judge, which they believe is racist. Yet, it is important for people to understand that:
- Marking a signifier does not at all mean that one is diminishing it. “Stray dog” is a marked signifier, but also is “Good dog”. And where those two signifiers are emotionally marked (they bear a certain evaluation and connotation), if one is to say “female dog” or “male dog” does not give the dog itself any evaluation. Thus, those who claim that “female judge” is diminishing in some sense are the only ones who read the marking (female) of the signifier(judge) as diminishing. The marking is only playing the role of clarifying. Nothing else, and nothing more. “Cold morning” is a marked signifier, but also is “Hot morning”, as well as “Sunday morning”.
- If in the USA the word judge bears the meaning of white male judge that is not a problem of the language but of American history. First of all the word judge used in Congo, for example, does not refer to a white male. And even in Europe, where the native population is predominantly white, in some (if not most) countries, the judicial system is predominantly female.
- Clarifying the background of a judge could actually increase their status. For example, “first black judge” demonstrates the success of the person in question.
Therefore, marking a signifier (clarifying what exactly one means), does not at all makes them evil by default.
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