The idea of being marked "refers to the way language alters the base meaning of a word by adding a linguistic particle with no meaning on its own." (Tannen, p.146) An example of this would be words like actor and actress. The English language simply adds suffixes to words to make them feminine. The unmarked concept can simply be put into the category as nothing outstanding or special.

One example Dr. Tannen makes about how women are marked is their clothing.

Most men cannot even remember what their colleagues were wearing on a given day. But if you ask a woman that same question, more often than not she could tell you everything down to the last detail. Maybe this is because most men choose to be unmarked so they do not notice everything that is indeed marked. Women are so used to being judged, they take note of others appearances and can usually remember everything from head to to

I believe that men have it much easier when it comes to being judged based on their clothing. They can "choose styles that are unmarked, but they don't have to" (Tannen, p.146) A man can choose to wear the same "shirt and tie" as they're fellow male citizens, or they can choose to be different. Plus, I've noticed that men do not obsess about the way they are dressed like women do. That is because they are not judged as harshly as women.

This brings me to Dr. Tannen's next point. Women are marked because of the makeup they do or do not wear. If a woman does not wear makeup she is again seen as lazy or not caring how she looks. And if a woman does wear makeup people may generally assume that she is trying to make herself more attractive. Personally, I usually choose not to put makeup on in the mornings to go to class. I am not trying to please anyone and I do not care if I am judged because of it. My choice may mark me as lazy or not caring, but I think that at eight o'clock in the morning my education is more important than whether my eye shadow matches my shirt. There are, however, many girls on my hall who spend at least forty-five minutes in the bathroom every morning trying to make sure their eyeliner is even and their lips look perfect. Most women do this because they know that they will be judged on how they look.

In Dr. Tannen's last example she gives another way that men are unmarked according to their names. This time they are unmarked according to their surnames. When a woman gets married, she usually adopts her husbands surname as her own. This marks her because "she announces to the world that she is married and has traditional values. To some it will indicate that she is less herself, more identified by her husband's name." (Tannen, p.147) A woman can choose to keep her own name if she gets married, but this too is a marked choice. Men do not have to make this choice. Rarely, if ever, a man takes his wife's name. And a man is never said to have kept his own name "because in never occurs to anyon

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Approximate Word count = 1375
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)