what is "meta language"?

[Judy]

Hello everyone

I have a BA in English literature and I'm specialising now in translation and linguistics ..
recently I came a cross some terms such as "meta language" , and "metafunctional components of the language", and I did not get what exactly they refer to.

so could anybody please help me??

best regards

[zoobyshoe]

Hello everyone

I have a BA in English literature and I'm specialising now in translation and linguistics ..
recently I came a cross some terms such as "meta language" , and "metafunctional components of the language", and I did not get what exactly they refer to.

so could anybody please help me??

best regards
You can look up the meaning of the the prefix "meta". In my opinion it seems to be pretentiously tacked onto a lot of words to create overly sophisticated concepts that obscure, rather than elucidate things.

Googling I found: "meta-joke", and this seemed the be the easiest "meta" to understand: a joke about jokes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta-joke

If you get what a "Meta-Joke" is, then you can read the entry on the prefix itself:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta

Then you can tackle "Metalanguage", which I am not sure is a very useful concept, but I suppose you should try and figure out what people are referring to when they use it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metalanguage

[harborsparrow]

can you provide a quote of how it was used?

[Judy]

You can look up the meaning of the the prefix "meta". In my opinion it seems to be pretentiously tacked onto a lot of words to create overly sophisticated concepts that obscure, rather than elucidate things.

Googling I found: "meta-joke", and this seemed the be the easiest "meta" to understand: a joke about jokes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta-joke

If you get what a "Meta-Joke" is, then you can read the entry on the prefix itself:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta

Then you can tackle "Metalanguage", which I am not sure is a very useful concept, but I suppose you should try and figure out what people are referring to when they use it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metalanguage

thanks alot

Maybe based on the meaning of meta-joke, I can understnad "meta language" as: the language that explains the language ... or linguisitic issues in the language ..
I'm not sure; does it make any sense?

but still depending on the meaning of the prefix "meta" I could not infer what "meta functional" means

thanks alot for your help .. I guess I will do more reading on that

[chroot]

Yes, a "meta-sentence" is a sentence about sentences, a "meta-language" is a language about languages, etc. Human beings are so good at understanding such concepts that they seem natural to us -- we hardly even notice the "meta" in the first place.

- Warren

[DaveC426913]

Simple examples of meta-language might be:
grammar, syntax, tense, voice object-subject agreement, etc.

There is a whole list of concepts and definitions (indeed, a whole language) that is used to define language.

So, a meta-function is a function that helps define functions. (So I wonder if concepts such as equal, not equal and greater than are all meta-functions?)

[Judy]

can you provide a quote of how it was used?

okay here you go ..

" ... In the process of developing the language, the child has obviously been internalising the formal means his language provides for expressing metafunctional meanings ..."

" Even a pre-school child will have some more conscious understandings and may have developed the first beginnings of a METALANGUAGE with which to talk about language."

" Probably almost all these simple 'technical' terms for talking about aspects of language will have evolved just as naturally as any other area of the lexis, without adult or child feeling that they are marked out in any way. This is worth mentioning because teachers very often feel that a linguistic metalanguage does constitute a special case."

[honestrosewater]

" ... In the process of developing the language, the child has obviously been internalising the formal means his language provides for expressing metafunctional meanings ..."

" Even a pre-school child will have some more conscious understandings and may have developed the first beginnings of a METALANGUAGE with which to talk about language."

" Probably almost all these simple 'technical' terms for talking about aspects of language will have evolved just as naturally as any other area of the lexis, without adult or child feeling that they are marked out in any way. This is worth mentioning because teachers very often feel that a linguistic metalanguage does constitute a special case."I have no idea what a metafunctional meaning could be.

A metalanguage will contain the means to talk about language, perhaps including itself. If you have experience with formal languages (e.g., from studying logic or programming), it might be easier to appreciate the significance of this. Not every language has this property. It is an additional level of abstraction and might allow for self-reference. For the speaker, it suggests a level of self-awareness. As an example, think of the use/mention distinction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use%E2%80%93mention_distinction). The liar paradox (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liar_paradox) might also be of interest.