Just a passing thought, but the logical theory of "markedness" in linguistic grammar is applied as "markings" to words in languages, and to include words in fictive literary writings, but it is not clear to me whether this theory of "unmarked" and "marked" oppositions can be applied to nonlingual signs in semiotic signage systems like graphic pictorial depictions. Some linguists claim that the theory can be so used, as for example with opposed colors and shapes and spaces. -Frances
