The article explores the marking theory introduced into morphology by a Russian linguist I. A. Melchuk which has not been sufficiently studied. The author examines and compares the traditional approach in morphology that focuses more on the study of morphological means and Melchuk's marking theory that contributes to the study of morphological meanings. The author points out that on the correlation “meaning - text” proposed in Melchuk's theory is a matter of great interest in Chinese linguistics. The concept and marking of morphological grammatical meanings proposed by Melchuk are clarified and commented on.