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2021: Creating a Lexicon of Future
M is for Metalanguage
In logic and linguistics, a metalanguage is a language used to describe another language, often called the object language. Expressions in a metalanguage are often distinguished from those in the object language by the use of italics, quotation marks, or writing on a separate line. The structure of sentences and phrases in a metalanguage can be described by a metasyntax. ~ Wikipedia, Metalanguage
Types of Metalanguage
Embedded
An embedded metalanguage is a language formally, naturally and firmly fixed in an object language. This idea is found in Douglas Hofstadter’s book, Gödel, Escher, Bach, in a 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.”
It occurs in natural, or informal, languages, as well — such as in English, where words such as noun, verb, or even word describe features and concepts pertaining to the English language itself.
Ordered
An ordered metalanguage is analogous to an ordered logic. An example of an ordered metalanguage is the construction of one metalanguage to discuss an object language, followed by the creation of another…
