metalanguage (n.)

LINGUISTICS, as other sciences, uses this term in the sense of a higher-level language for describing an object of study (or ‘object language’) – in this case the object of study is itself language, viz. the various language samples, intuitions, etc., which constitute our linguistic experience. The subject of this dictionary is linguistic metalanguage. Metalinguistics is the study of metalanguage, in this general sense. Other ‘meta’ notions will also be encountered, such as METARULE and METADISCOURSE.

The general term metalinguistics has a more specific sense within linguistics, where some linguists have used it, especially in the 1950s, to refer to the overall relation of the linguistic system to the other systems of behavior in the associated culture (compare the similar notion of CONTEXT OF SITUATION). In this view, only such a total account will constitute the full statement of the MEANINGS of the linguistic FORMS.