metalinguisticsn.
/ˌmɛtəlɪŋˈɡwɪstɪks/, U.S. /ˌmɛdəˌlɪŋˈɡwɪstɪks/ Linguistics.
1. Esp. in the terminology of H. L. Smith and G. L. Trager: that branch of linguistics which is concerned with the relation of language to other cultural systems. Also: those aspects of language which relate to other elements of a culture. Cf. microlinguistics n., prelinguistics n. Now rare.According to this view, a metalinguistic study is required for a comprehensive statement of the meanings of linguistic forms.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > other schools of linguistics > [noun] > study of relation between language and culture
ethnolinguistics1920
metalinguistics1949
exolinguistic1953
ethnosemantics1966
1949 G. L. Trager in Stud. in Linguistics: Occas. Papers i. 7 The full statement of the..relations between the language and any of the other cultural systems will contain all the ‘meanings’ of the linguistic forms, and will constitute the metalinguistics of that culture.
1953 C. E. Bazell Ling. Form viii. 98 The study of micro-criteria, whether phonetic or semantic, belongs to metalinguistics.
1967 C. L. Wrenn Word & Symbol 4 The rather programmatic ‘science’ of metalinguistics recognises the need to study language and culture in intimate relationship.
1987 Jrnl. Hist. Ideas 48 165 His [sc. Habermas's] objections to Gadamer suggest that he still aspires to a universalist system of social metaphysics, or metalinguistics, designed rather to answer old questions than to pose new ones.
1994 Ann. Rev. Anthropol. 23 42 Ethnographic accounts that closely examine the metalinguistics and etymologies of lamentation also reveal ways these genres are marked in relation to other speech or song forms.
2. The branch of linguistics that deals with metalanguages; the study of the methodology of linguistics.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > other schools of linguistics > [noun] > other specific branches or schools
historical linguistics1871
functional grammar1894
applied linguistics1922
functionalism1935
prelinguistics1949
metalinguistics1951
mathematical linguistics1955
systemic linguistics1958
computational linguistics1961
emic1962
microsociolinguistics1968
stratificationalism1968
creolistics1970
macrolinguistics1972
1951 Language 27 iii. 212 The discussion of linguistic research techniques is not a linguistics as we have known it, but rather a metalinguistics.
1974 Encycl. Brit. Micropædia VI. 827/3 Some linguists use the term metalinguistics in reference to the study of metalanguages, languages or codes used to discuss or describe other languages.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1949