Metalanguage Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Metalanguage in linguistics is a language used to make statements about language (the object language). Formal syntatic models for the description of grammar, eg. generative grammar, are a type of metalanguage. More broadly, it can refer to any terminology or language used to discuss language itself - a written grammar, for example, or a discussion about language use.
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2 Kinds of 3 Metaphor and 4 Compututing 5 See also 6 External Links 7 References |
The English language provides many examples where it functions as a metalanguage and is by no means limited to Linguistics. Its use is also found in ,Logic, Science, and Mathematics. In Logic, the 'terms 'syllogism', 'proposition', 'conclusion', 'premise', 'true', 'false', 'sound', 'unsound', 'valid', and 'invalid' are all part of the metalanguage of Logic that are also part of English. This is not to be confused with Metalogic which is concerned with the boundries, limits, scope, and foundations of Logic itself. The terms cited above are those used to talk about different kinds of propositions and their relations.
As is no surprise English is also used as a metalanguage in Science. Take the case of the chemical equation H + O2 --> H2O. This an example of a balanced equation one in which energy is conserved. Both the phrase 'balanced equation' and 'energy is conserve' are used to talk about the equation H + O2 --> H2O and as such are part of the metalanguage of Chemistry. The same applies to nuclear reactions and thus can be extended to Physics not to mention all the underlying Chemistry and Physics in Biology, Geology and Ecology etc. The Conservation Laws can thus be said to be part of the metalanguage of all the Sciences.
In Mathematics there are numerous examples where English is used as a metalanguage.
The terms 'one', 'two', 'three' are part of the metalanguage used to talk about the Arabic numerals 1,2,3. The terms 'axiom', theorem', 'postulate', 'law' and 'proof' are part of the metalanguage of Geometry. This is not to be confused with Metamathematics which is concerned with Proof Theory. It will be noted that the terms 'consistant', 'inconsistant', 'complete' and 'incomplete' are part of the metalanguage of Metamathematics. The terms 'point', 'line','plane', and 'polyhedra' are all part of the metalanguage used to talk about the graphic object language of Geometry. In arithematic the terms 'plus', 'minus', 'multiply', and 'divide' are part of the metalanguage for the symbols +,-,x,etc. In Algebra the terms 'variable', 'independent variable', 'dependent variable', and 'equation' are part of its metalanguage.
Metalanguages are not limited to English either. The relationship between two foriegn languages can also be interpreted as that of a metalanguage to an object language. Spanish can be a metalanguage to English and vice versa. One can talk about Spanish in English and English in Spanish as it is often taught.
In mathematics Algebra is a metalanguage to arithematic and in Analytic Geometry Algebra is a metalanguage to Geometry.
There are a variety of kinds of metalanguages including embedded, ordered and nested or hierachical. Embedded metalanguages as their name suggests are metalanguages embedded in an object language. They occur both formally and naturally. This idea is found in Douglas Hofstader's book Godel, Escher, Bach in his discussion of the relationship between formal languages and number theory. "...it is in the nature of any formalization of number theory that it's metalanguage is embedded within it (p. 270). An example can be found in informal languages as well as for example in English. Adjectives, adverbs, and possesive pronouns serve as an embedded metalanguage. While nouns, verbs and in some instances adjectives and adverbs serve as an object language. Thus the term 'red' in the phrase 'red barn' is part of the embedded metalanguage of English and the term 'barn' serves as its object language. Examples for adverbs are likewise readily available. Such as the term 'slowly' in the phrase 'slowly running'
Ordered metalanguages are analogous to Ordered Logics. An examle of an ordered metalanguage would be the construction of one metalanguage to talk about an object language then creating another metalanguage to talk about the first metalanguage and so on and so forth to infinity as the need arises.
Nested or hierarchical metalanguages are similar to ordered metalanguages in that each level represents a greater degree of abstraction, however nested metalanguages differ from ordered ones in that each level includes the one below. The paradigmatic example of a nested metalanguage comes from Biology. The Linnean taxonomic system is just such an example. Each level in the system incorporates the one below it. Thus the language used to talk about genus is also used to talk about species and the language that is used to talk about Orders is also used to talk about Geni and so on up to Kingdoms.
Michael Reddy (1979) has demonstrated that much of the language we use to talk about language is conceptualized and structured by what he refers to as the Conduit Metaphor. The Conduit Metaphor is actually three interconnected metaphors. The first is that concepts, thoughts, feelings, meanings, sense and words are objects. Second, words, sentences etc. are containers (with an inside and an outside) for these objects. And finally that communication is an act of sending and receiving these containers. Reddy offers sentences similar to the following as evidence:
HTML and XHTML are examples of markup languages that can be used by anyone wishing to translate media including video, sound, graphics and text into a language intelligable to a computer and suitable for display on the internet. Originally this required manually typing up an HTML document but there are software programs that will do this now. There are in addition special mark up languages for mathematical and scientific notation such as Tex and LaTeX or one of its many variants.
This is an Article on Metalanguage. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Metalanguage Examples of
Kinds of
Metaphor and
Reddy estimates that fully 70% of the language we use to talk about the English language is based on this metaphor. While recognizing the prominance of this metaphor, Reddy is deeply troubled by it. He thinks it is erroneous, misleading and dehumanizing.Compututing
See also
External Links
References