Linguistic Metalanguage Research Articles

Towards the Epistemology of Linguistics: Creating a Terminological Hypertext Thesaurus

An essay on the monograph The Metalanguage of Linguistics by S.V. Lesnikov (St. Petersburg, 2021). The author analyses the innovative principles of creating a hypertext thesaurus of linguistics terminology, emphasizes an extensive source base of digitized dictionaries of linguistic terms, and the integrated approach to the study of linguistics metalanguage including a multidimensional analysis of various scientific schools’ and national traditions’ terminological systems. The study was based on more than 1220 digitized sources – Russian dictionaries of linguistics terminology published from 1755 to 2021. S. V. Lesnikov introduces the concept of hyzaurus into scientific circulation. In fact, it is a digital ideographic dictionary of linguistics terminology providing hyperlinks designed to search for terms by their meanings. The monograph presents infographics, a systematic index of the hyzaurus, and the ability to search not only by keywords, but also by semantic fields and even by terminological paradigms. The author notes the importance of the performed research for the creation of linguistics epistemology.

THE EMOTIONAL CONCEPT OF “SADNESS” IN THE COLLECTION OF STORIES “THE ROOM FOR SORROW” BY ANDRII LYUBKA

Scholars from diverse fields of the humanities, including sociology, psychology, philosophy, linguistics, and others, have demonstrated a sustained interest in the realm of emotions. This is primarily because emotions are inextricably linked to crucial aspects of human existence such as behaviour, lifestyle, feelings and their expression, comprehension of the surrounding environment, and the human experience of life-altering circumstances. Every individual’s emotional landscape, as well as their linguistic expression, reflects a unique array of emotions. The article provides an overview of theoretical sources and examines the intricacies of the “concept” notion, which is central to the cognitive linguistics metalanguage. Moreover, the article introduces the term “emotional concept”, which constitutes fragments of the emotional landscape of an individual. In light of this, the language employed by select authors is of significant interest, as their works serve as a model of personal reinterpretation, while also reflecting their way of life, internal experiences, and the accuracy of their linguistic personality’s depiction of reality. The research presented in this article formulates and outlines methods for expressing the emotional concept of “sadness”, using the stories of Transcarpathian writer Andriy Lyubka as an exemplar. The emotional state of sadness has long captivated the attention of scholars across diverse fields of study. This is primarily because, alongside joy, it represents one of the two fundamental, polar emotions. The concept of sadness is universal, as it is comprehensible and relatable across all societies. Individuals can find themselves residing at the intersection of various intervals of sadness, which may arise from losses, disappointments, or physical and emotional pain. Given the universal and profound nature of this emotion, an exploration of Andrii Lyubka’s literary works allows for an examination of how the emotional concept of “sadness” is expressed across multiple language levels, including phraseology, stylistics, phonetics, morphology, and non-verbal communication. This research provides numerous examples that illustrate the description, usage, and implementation of the “sadness” concept within both written texts and spoken language. Key words: cognitive linguistics, linguistics of emotions, concept, emotional concept, emotional picture of the world, Andrii Lyubka.

Functioning of linguistic, literary, philological terms as part of juridical linguistic meta-language (on example of the term “comparison”)

Functioning of linguistic, literary, philological terms as part of juridical linguistic meta-language (on example of the term “comparison”)

CLASSIFICATION OF THE MAIN JURIDICAL TERMS IN THE JURIDICAL LINGUISTIC METALANGUAGE

This paper is about classification of the main juridical terms in the juridical linguistic metalanguage. There are two classification of the main juridical terms in the article: 1) as regards its level of specialization; 2) as regards its sphere of the low

Reading nominalizations in senior science

The paper examines the challenges faced by senior Biology students in reading ‘nominalizations’ in textbook materials and illustrates how the challenges can be addressed through pedagogical activities. The study draws on emerging descriptions of field and discourse semantics in Systemic Functional Linguistics that are inspired by Halliday's distinction between ‘live’ and ‘dead’ grammatical metaphors. It first presents a metalanguage to discriminate functions of nominalization. Two different kinds of ‘mismatches’ of meaning are discussed, including how field activities are reconstrued through discourse semantic resources, and how discourse semantic resources are remapped as lexicogrammatical resources. The paper attends to nominalization from the perspective of the knowledge that is at stake in its use. In addition to providing linguistic metalanguage, the paper demonstrates pedagogic practices designed to support teachers to make this knowledge visible. These pedagogic practices include cross-mode redescription and Detailed Reading from SFL-informed Reading to Learn pedagogy.

Scaffolding L2 writers’ metacognitive awareness of voice in article reviews: A case study of SFL-based pedagogy

Halliday’s threefold perspective “learning language, learning through language, learning about language” (Halliday, 1993, p. 113) has shed light on the ways language learners learn to mean in contexts of use. Grounded in Halliday’s language-based theory of learning, this study explores how Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) metalanguage can scaffold language choices in the EAP writing classroom and help L2 writers learn how to mean in article reviews. This case study translates Halliday’s (1978) SFL and its recent development of the Engagement framework (Martin & White, 2005) into a pedagogical instrument, exploring how the framework can serve as a heuristic to scaffold L2 writers’ awareness of voice. The findings show that the Engagement constructs focused students’ attention on key voice resources and the rhetorical goals they enabled, providing a heuristic that students could use in their writing. Their varied uptake of Engagement metalanguage and the differential repertoires displayed in their writing reflected different metacognitive developments. Findings from this study can provide EAP instructors with immediately useful metalanguage for discussing voice with their students in more accessible ways, in their efforts to help students gain greater discoursal control of voice as their students manage to accomplish key rhetorical goals in article reviews.

ЛІНГВІСТИЧНИЙ СЕМІОКОД СУЧАСНОЇ УКРАЇНСЬКОЇ ПОЕЗІЇ: МЕТАМОВА, ОБРАЗ, СЕНС

У пропонованій статті автори досліджують асоціативно-образний та сенсотвірний потенціал лінгвістичних термінів і понять як конституентів лінгвістичної метамови, інтегрованих у поетичний контекст для творення оригінального словесного образу — конкретно-чуттєвого чи екзистенційно наснаженого. Для потреб дослідження введено поняття лінгвістичного семіокоду, а його складники потлумачено як культурні знаки, здатні кодувати відповідні сенси у вимірі авторського поетичного мовомислення. З’ясовано, що сучасна українська поезія активно послуговується лінгвістичним семіокодом, що дозволило спрогнозувати поетичну семантику відповідних термінопонять і подати власну інтерпретацію сенсів, закладених у тексті.

System-semantic relations as a sign of evolution dynamics of terminological system of juridical linguistics metalanguage

System-semantic relations as a sign of evolution dynamics of terminological system of juridical linguistics metalanguage

ТЕРМІНОЛОГІЯ ФРАНЦУЗЬКОЇ ЛІНГВІСТИКИ ТА ЛІНГВІСТИЧНА СИНЕРГЕТИКА

In the article on the base of the linguistic synergetics concept of G. G. Piotrovsky the problems of French linguistics metalanguage, issues of linguistic terminology are examined. The author emphasizes that the metalanguage of linguistics is a complex phenomenon, which, on the one hand, there are the system relations between terms, on the other one there are general academic vocabulary, words and phrases that are used when describing various aspects of linguistic research. Terminology of linguistics requires a special effort in the studying, because the object-language and metalanguage coincide in terms of expression, that is, have the same substance. The article presents the analysis of the metalanguage state of French linguistics, which is a diachronic interweaving of numerous schools and directions, author’s theories and concepts; the distinctive features of the French linguistic terminology are examined. It is noted that in the semiotic aspect the French linguistic terminology is characterized by the following properties: French linguistic term is a simple or complex sign that in the framework of French linguistics embodies a linguistic concept in its meaning. Terminological field of French linguistics meets the semantic space that is a counterpart of the French linguistics as a special subject area and includes the totality of semantic fields of general linguistic, grammatical, phonetic, phonological and lexicological terms.

Fourth-grade emergent bilinguals' uses of functional grammar analysis to talk about text

While decades of research on reading comprehension strategy instruction has yielded significant insights into the effective use of comprehension strategies, less is known about how students—in particular students who are learning English as an additional language—can leverage their knowledge of language to make meaning with text. This descriptive case study provides insight into the ways talk about language, using a functional grammar, supports a group of fourth-grade emergent bilinguals. Students construct coherent mental representations of text by attending to linguistic features that they had learned to identify during the preceding school year, using a semantically-based linguistic metalanguage from systemic functional linguistics. Their connection of language forms and meanings in think-alouds and interviews suggests that functional grammar analysis holds promise as an instructional tool with which teachers can guide students’ attention to the central meanings in text.

Considering a Socio-cognitive Approach in the Compiling of a Linguistics Dictionary

The paper presents research into multilingual students’ needs that may as well determine the design of a linguistics dictionary. The underlying research question is what degree of linguistic awareness of the linguistics metalanguage resides in the minds of future EFL professionals. The data are interpreted through the notion of interlingual equivalence. The respondents of an experimental questionnaire are Slovak freshmen majoring in EFL. The results suggest a hybrid approach (bilingual and encyclopedic) to presenting linguistics terminology so that multicompetence is promoted as a system in its own right, rather than the exact equivalent of either monolingual system.

МЕТАЯЗЫК, ЕГО СВОЙСТВА И РОЛЬ В ЯЗЫКОВОЙ СИСТЕМЕ

Ostapenko Darya Igorevna – PhD in Philology, Lecturer at the Department of the Theory of Translation and Intercultural Communication, the Faculty of Romance and Germanic Philology, Voronezh State University. The article is devoted to the study of the notion «metalanguage» in modern linguistics. The author analyses approaches to the definition of metalanguage, the place it occupies in the language system, its properties, types, components, and usage. At the beginning of the article the author defines the notion «metalanguage» in the framework of the semiotic approach, specifies who was the first to use the term «metalanguage», and makes reference to the way this phenomenon is interpreted in philosophy. Then the author proceeds to the study of the notion «metalanguage» from the linguistic point of view and starts with a thorough investigation of Roman Jakobson’s opinion on the matter since he was among the first linguists to draw attention to it. The article deals with two main approaches to the place which metalanguage occupies in the language system: according to the first approach, metalanguage is defined as an artificial language; according to the second approach, metalanguage is considered as the part of the natural language. The author also points out key differences between metalanguage and terminology and enumerates the reasons why communicators might want to use metalinguistic elements. Besides, the article describes various types of metalanguage, e.g. everyday metalanguage, linguistic metalanguage, and metametalanguage, the suggested classifications being based on different parameters. Finally, the author analyses possible situations when metalanguage can be used paying specific attention to the metalinguistic features of translation and interpreting. The author comes to the conclusion that in this case it would be right to talk about a metacommunicative function rather than about a metalinguistic one. Key words: metalanguage, metalinguistic function, metacommunicative function, translation and interpreting, everyday metalanguage, linguistic metalanguage, metametalanguage.

METAPHOR AS A COMMON ELEMENT OF SCIENTIFIC AND FICTIONAL TEXTS

The article is dedicated to the study of metaphor as a term of metalanguage and to its ability to serve as a common element of both scientific and fictional texts. Topicality of the article is grounded by the fact that nowadays special terms are widely used not only in scientific but also in fictional texts. The problem consists in the fact that so far the scientific term has been regarded as unambiguous and such its properties as connotative character, emotivity, pragmatism, evaluative character and anthropomorphic character have been neglected. As concerns the special terms of some domains scientific researches affirming an opposite idea are being created when the amount of studies investigating the terms of linguistic metalanguage is still insufficient to consider this problem to be solved. In the article the opinions of different linguists are given. These opinions rest upon propositions of cognitive science and on reception of metaphor as a tool of world cognition. The article also dwells upon stages of term formation. On the ground of study of such a term of linguistic metalanguage as metaphor and of different terms that serve as units of speech production the idea is affirmed that terms can be full members not only of scientific language but also of fictional one. The terms of linguistic metalanguage may become polysemantic and evaluative in fictional texts when colloquial words are liable to metaphorization and may perform functions of linguistic terms.

Pictorial-verbal Modality of Communication

Natural languages are introspective, and here is an obvious discrepancy between feeling the language and theorizing about it by the means of a traditional linguistic metalanguage. This discrepancy conceals from our eyes some important issues. The aim consists in considering one of them and discussing the possibility of using pictorial-verbal modality for simulating introspective verbal language within man-machine communication. Principles of realization and general challenges of the approach are also discussed.

ТЕЗАУРУСНОЕ МОДЕЛИРОВАНИЕ МЕТАЯЗЫКА СОВРЕМЕННОЙ ЛИНГВИСТИКИ

The article deals with the problems connected with the thesaurus lexicography development. The key point is dedicated to modern linguistics metalanguage the basic component of which is linguistic terminology. The given article considers the thesaurus modelling technology of the linguistic terms semantics viewed in foreign and Russian linguistics. Special attention is paid to the survey of current investigations in the study field found in papers of scholars of the “Theory and Translation practice” Department (Togliatti State University), particularly the thesaurus model of French linguistics metalanguage (Yu.I. Gorbunov) is being analyzed. The current model includes three modules reflecting the basic branches of French linguistics: grammar, phonetics and lexicology. The results of the thesaurus modelling of French sociolinguistic terminology studied by E.Yu. Sennitskaya are being considered. Her scientific research resulted in French-Russian sociolinguistic thesaurus (ideographic type of dictionary) viewed as a lexicographic model of information-semiotic nature of French sociolinguistic metalanguage. The significant part of the article is given to the analysis of the results of the English linguistics metalanguage scientific research. In this perspective the scientific works by E.Yu. Gorbunov are of special interest, suggesting the practical use of the thesaurus technology towards the investigation of the semiotic nature of the English morphology and morphosyntax metalanguage. In her turn Yu.V. Vedernikova refers to the methodology of the thesaurus modelling as well, studying the semantic features of the English cognitive linguistics terminology. Her scientific research resulted in the English cognitive linguistics terminology thesaurus provided with its electronic platform. The scientific research by I.I. Zhuchkova is of special interest implementing the thesaurus modelling technology towards the English text linguistics terminology. The linguistic model built by I.I. Zhuchkova represents in its system-structured view the basic part of the English text linguistics metalanguage. As a result of analysis of current English and French linguistic terminology thesaurus models we may conclude that there is a special need to use them as a lingvodidactic tool of linguistic professional competence formation.

The Role of Metalanguage in Supporting Academic Language Development

Recent currents in language learning research highlight the social and emergent aspects of second language (L2) development and recognize that learners need opportunities for interaction in meaningful contexts supported by explicit attention to language itself. These perspectives suggest new ways of conceptualizing the challenges faced by children learning L2s as they learn school subjects. This article reports on design‐based research in U.S. schools with a majority of English language learners, where teachers were supported in using Systemic Functional Linguistics metalanguage in the context of curricular activities. This work illustrates how a meaningful metalanguage can support L2 learners in accomplishing challenging tasks in the primary school curriculum at the same time that it promotes the kind of focused consciousness‐raising and explicit talk about language that has been shown to facilitate L2 development. Examples from classroom research exemplify how metalanguage supports the situated and contextual language learning that current research in education and L2 acquisition calls for, while also supporting disciplinary goals and activities in English language arts.

Ways with words: teachers’ personal epistemologies of the role of metalanguage in the teaching of poetry writing

This paper investigates the personal epistemologies of teachers in relation to the place of linguistic and literary metalanguage in the teaching of poetry writing. The data draw on 93 interviews with 31 secondary English teachers in the UK, following lesson observations, and the data are a subset of a larger study investigating the impact of contextualised grammar teaching on writing attainment. The analysis indicates that teachers’ personal epistemologies relating to metalanguage are ambivalent and, at times, contradictory. Teachers tend to view literary metalanguage as linked to the creative freedom of writing poetry, whereas linguistic metalanguage is constructed as associated with rules and restrictions. At the same time, teachers reveal a lack of confidence with subject knowledge in both literary and linguistic metalanguage, which may be shaping their epistemological beliefs. Teachers’ comments on the place of literary and linguistic metalanguage in poetry writing are paradoxical, but do appear to be strongly connected with their personal epistemologies. They subscribe to a literate epistemology which values literary metalanguage as part of the knowledge base of a creative, expressive subject, but linguistic metalanguage is not included within this literate epistemology.

A Study of Students’ Metalinguistic Competence and Its Probable Effect in the Cambridge School Certificate Final Examinations

The aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which students’ understanding of key words in examination questions might influence their performance as illustrated by the number of subjects in which they obtain pass grades in the Cambridge Overseas School Certificate Examination (COSCE). The term used to refer to key words in this study is ‘metalinguistic’.It is a term that means more than what Kemp (2006, p.1) refers to as ‘grammatical metalinguistic awareness’. In the context of this study it refers to words or phrases that are used to describe language as an object of study. Procedurally, questions were designed to assess students’ understanding of metalinguistic terms. The percentage scores of the metalinguistic tests were calculated and then compared with the number of ‘O’ level passes obtained by students to determine whether high scores in the metalanguage tests were comparable to the number of ‘O’ level passes obtained by the research subjects. It was discovered that high metalinguistic test scores were associated with greater ‘O’ level passes and low scores, with fewer ‘O’ level passes.Keywords: metalinguistic awareness, linguistics metalanguage, metalinguistic incompetence, metalinguistic competence variable, idealization, metalinguistic score

Collective nouns, aggregate nouns, and superordinates

‘Part of’ and ‘kind of’ relations in the lexicon have been matter of some linguistic research, but strangely enough, they have only rarely been investigated together. Strangely, since ‘part of’ and ‘kind of’ appear to be similar in a number of respects, and since nouns such as furniture or bétail combine both ‘part of’ and ‘kind of’ readings. As a consequence, linguistic terminology in this specific domain has been lacking in uniformity and transparency. This article aims to bring terminological clarity: it offers a rough survey of the entire ‘part of/kind of’ spectrum and pleads for an unambiguous linguistic metalanguage that distinguishes between collective nouns (e.g. team), aggregate nouns (e.g. furniture), and superordinates (e.g. vehicle). Arguments for the terminological distinctions proposed can be found in a thorough investigation of lexical form-meaning relationships.

Disinventing and (Re)Constituting Languages

In this paper we argue that although the problematic nature of language construction has been acknowledged by a number of skeptical authors, including the recent claim in this journal (Reagan, 2004) that there is no such thing as English or any other language, this critical approach to language still needs to develop a broader understanding of the processes of invention. A central part of our argument, therefore, is that it is not enough to acknowledge that languages have been invented, nor that linguistic metalanguage constructs the world in particular ways; rather, we need to understand the interrelationships among metadiscursive regimes, language inventions, colonial history, language effects, alternative ways of understanding language, and strategies of disinvention and reconstitution. Any critical (applied) linguistic project that aims to deal with language in the contemporary world, however estimable its political intent may be, must also have ways of understanding the detrimental language effects it may engender unless it confronts the need for linguistic disinvention and reconstitution.