metalanguage

met·a·lan·guage

M0244920 (mĕt′ə-lăng′gwĭj)n.1. A language or vocabulary used to describe or analyze language.2. Computers A language used to define another language.

metalanguage

(ˈmɛtəˌlæŋɡwɪdʒ) n (Linguistics) a language or system of symbols used to discuss another language or system. See also formal language, natural language Compare object language

met•a•lan•guage

(ˈmɛt əˌlæŋ gwɪdʒ)

n. a language or symbolic system used to discuss, describe, or analyze another language or symbolic system. [1935–40]

Thesaurus

Noun

metalanguage - a language that can be used to describe languageslanguage, linguistic communication - a systematic means of communicating by the use of sounds or conventional symbols; "he taught foreign languages"; "the language introduced is standard throughout the text"; "the speed with which a program can be executed depends on the language in which it is written"syntax language - a language used to describe the syntax of another language

Translations

metalanguage

[′med·ə‚laŋ·gwij] (computer science) A programming language that uses symbols to represent the syntax of other programming languages, and is used chiefly to write compilers for those languages.

metalanguage

any ‘second order’ language used to discuss a language; any set or system of propositions about propositions.

Metalanguage

a basic concept in modern logic and theoretical linguistics, used in studying the languages of various mathematical logical calculi, natural languages, and the relations between languages of different “levels” and for determining the relations between the languages under consideration and the object realms that these languages describe.

Metalanguage is a language used to express judgments about another language, the object-language. Metalanguage is employed in the study of the structure of the sign-combinations (expressions) of an object-language, and in the demonstration of theorems about the object-language’s expressive, and perhaps deductive, capacity and about its relation to other languages. Like the object-language, the metalanguage may also be an ordinary (natural) language. The metalanguage may differ from the object-language (for example, in an English-language textbook for Russians, Russian is the metalanguage and English is the object-language), or it may coincide, or partly differ from it, for example, as far as special terminology is concerned. Russian linguistic terminology, for example, is a part of metalanguage for the description of Russian; semantic factors belong to a metalanguage that describes the semantics of natural languages.

The concept of metalanguage was introduced and became extremely productive in connection with the study of formalized languages—calculi constructed within the framework of mathematical logic. In contrast to formalized object-languages, metalanguage—which is used to formulate a metatheory for the study of an object-theory formulated in the object-language—is, as a rule, an ordinary natural language or, more precisely, part of a natural language that has been specially limited so as not to contain any ambiguities, metaphors, metaphysical concepts, or other elements of ordinary language that hinder its function as an instrument of precise scientific research. At the same time, metalanguage itself may be formalized, and, independently of this, may be the object of study of a metametalanguage, and so on, in a series that may conceivably progress ad infinitum.

However, as an instrument in the metatheoretical study of formalized languages that permit versatile and orthodox enough interpretations in the logical sphere, the metalanguage should in no way be “poorer” than its object-language (that is, each expression of the object-language should be “translatable” into the metalanguage); the metalanguage should contain expressions of higher “logical types” than does the object-language. Failure to fulfill these requirements (which inevitably occurs in natural languages if special steps are not taken) leads to semantic paradoxes (antinomies).

REFERENCES

Tarski, A. Vvedenie v logiku i metodologiiu deduktivnykh nauk. Moscow, 1948. (Translated from English.)
Kleene, S. C. Vvedenie v metamatematiku, Ch. 1. Moscow, 1957. (Translated from English.)
Church, A. Vvedenie v matematicheskuiu logiku, vol. 1. Moscow, 1960. (Introduction.) (Translated from English.)
Curry, H. B. Osnovaniia matematicheskoi logiki, chs. 1–3. Moscow, 1969. (Translated from English.)
IU. A. GASTEV and V. K. FINN

metalanguage

(1)[theorem proving] A language in which proofs aremanipulated and tactics are programmed, as opposed to thelogic itself (the "object language"). The first ML wasthe metalanguage for the Edinburgh LCF proof assistant.

metalanguage

(2)[logic] A language in which to discuss the truth ofstatements in another language.

metalanguage

The language used to describe a language. "Noun," "verb" and "adjective" are metalanguage examples. See metadata.

metalanguage

met·a·lan·guage

metalanguage

met•a•lan•guage

metalanguage

metalanguage

metalanguage

Metalanguage

REFERENCES

metalanguage

metalanguage

metalanguage

metalanguage

Words related to metalanguage

noun a language that can be used to describe languages

Related Words