Metalanguage is a language used to make statements about statements in another
language which is called the object language. Formal syntactic models for the
description of grammar, e.g. 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.
Kinds
There are a variety of recognized metalanguages, including embedded, ordered, and
nested (hierarchical).
An embedded metalanguage, as its name suggests, is a language embedded in an
object language. It occurs both formally and naturally. This idea is found in Douglas
Hofstadter's book, Gödel, 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 its metalanguage is embedded within it." (pg.270). It occurs in
natural, or informal, languages, as well—such as in English, where adjectives,
adverbs, and possessive pronouns constitute an embedded metalanguage; and where
nouns, verbs, and, in some instances, adjectives and adverbs, constitute an object
language. Thus, the adjective 'red' in the phrase 'red barn' is part of the embedded
metalanguage of English, and the noun 'barn' is part of the object language. In the
example, 'slowly running', the verb 'running' is part of the object language, and the
adverb 'slowly' is part of the metalanguage.
An ordered metalanguage is analogous to ordered logic. An example of an ordered
metalanguage would be the construction of one metalanguage to talk about an object
language, followed by the creation of another metalanguage to talk about the first
metalanguage, and so on.
A nested, or hierarchical, metalanguage is similar to an ordered metalanguage in
that each level represents a greater degree of abstraction. However, a nested
metalanguage differs from an ordered one, in that each level includes the one below.
The paradigmatic example of a nested metalanguage comes from the Linnean
taxonomic system in biology. Each level in the system incorporates the one below it.
The language used to talk about genus is also used to talk about species; the language
that is used to talk about orders is also used to talk about geni; and, so on, up to
kingdoms.
Role in metaphor
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, which holds that ideas can be expressed and interpreted through language.
It incorporates these three interconnected metaphors:
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Concepts, thoughts, feelings, meanings, sense and ideas are objects.
Words, sentences, and so on are containers (with an inside and an outside) for
these objects.
Finally, communication is the act of sending and receiving these containers
(through a conduit).
Those who speak and expect their meaning to be understood as it was intended are
thinking of language as a conduit, perhaps a more faithful one than it truly is:
miscommunications and misunderstandings can be attributed to this assumption.
Reddy offers sentences similar to the following as evidence of the prevalence of the
conduit metaphor in society:
1. What is the meaning in his words?
2. Try to get your thoughts into words.
3. I couldn't get any meaning out of his words.
4. I couldn't find any sense in his words.
5. His words were empty and 'devoid' of feeling.
6. His promises were hollow.
7. His ideas were hidden in a dense thicket of sentences.
8. Like a maggot in a turd he hid within the word.
9. How do I convey my love in mere words.
10. How do I get it across to you that I don't want to see you again.
11. I gave her a call.
12. I received your call.
13. I got the message.
Computing
Computers follow programs which are sets of instructions in a clear and simple
language. The development of a programming language involves the use of a
metalanguage. Backus–Naur form is one of the earliest metalanguages used in
computing and was developed in the 1960s by John Backus and Peter Naur.
HTML and XHTML are examples of markup languages that can be used by anyone
wishing to present Web pages on the Internet with media such as text (formatted or
unformatted), graphics, sound and video. Markup languages are different from
metalanguages as they only describe how a document should be presented and not the
syntax of a computer programming language, however it's possible to use schemas
like XML Schemas to describe content rules. XML is the metalanguage used to
describe XHTML just as SGML is used to describe HTML. XHTML is much stricter
than HTML, for example XHTML is case sensitive unlike HTML. XSL can be
considered as a Metalanguage, it allows to define how files encoded in the XML
standard are to be formatted or transformed.
XML is used to describe other document types such as "OpenDocument Text" which
is the native format for the word processor application in OpenOffice.org. With XSD
schemas it is possible to describe Metadata attached to an XML document, for
example using Dublin Core standard. Many other metalanguages have been based on
the W3C XML 1.0 standard, including:
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XQuery (An XML based query language)
XLink
SVG
SMIL
Many more
Markup languages such as TeX and LaTeX can be used to create documents
containing mathematical or scientific notation.
References
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Audi, R. (1996). The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy. Cambridge,
Cambridge University Press.
Baldick, C. (1996). Oxford Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford,
Oxford University Press.
Cuddon, J. A. (1999). The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary
Theory. London, Penguin Books.
Hofstadter, D. R. (1980). Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. New
York, Vintage Books.
Honderich, T. (1995). The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Oxford, Oxford
University Press.
Matthews, P. H. (1997). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics.
Oxford, Oxford University Press.
McArthur, T. (1996). The Concise Oxford Companion to the English
Language. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Reddy, Michael J. (1979). "The conduit metaphor: A case of frame conflict in
our language about language", in Metaphor and Thought, ed. Andrew Ortony,
2nd edn (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993): 164-201.
Ritzer, G. (1991). Metatheorizing in Sociology.
Collected by:
Haya As-Suraya
Mariam AL-Mofadhi
Sumaia Al-Swailem