Meaning of metalanguage (what is it, concept and definition)

What is Metalanguage:

Metalanguage is the language that is used to describe, state or analyze language.

In logic and linguistics, metalanguage is used to analyze and structure the logical problems posed by semantic paradoxes in the language used to describe objects.

Metalanguage is also defined as the specialized language to describe a natural linguistic system or another language considered object of analysis. This is especially evident in learning a new language, such as "the word language means 'language' in English".

Expressions in metalanguage are often distinguished from object-language by using italics, quotation marks, or separate line writing, although they are not always expressed in this way.

The British author Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) defined the theory of the hierarchy of languages ​​on two levels:

• Language-object level: used to refer to objects such as "they are people". Metalinguistic or metalanguage level: it is the language used to define the previous level, for example, in the phrase "immigrants are people", "immigrants" is at the metalanguage level.

On the other hand, the Polish author Alfred Tarski (1901-1983) defines metalanguage as the solution to semantic paradoxes, stating that "it is necessary to speak the truth about language from a different language called metalanguage".

Some examples of metalanguage are grammatical language, lexicographic language, logical language, children's language, technical language, computer language, among others.

In linguistics, six uses or functions in language are distinguished, one of them being the metalinguistic function, which uses metalanguage to speak of the language itself. For example: "Metalanguage is a language."

Characteristics of the metalanguage

The metalanguage has specific characteristics that help a better understanding of the message due to the logical complexity that it supports. Alfred Tarski defines some essential characteristics for a language to be considered metalanguage:

• The metalanguage defines a language using a different language. The metalanguage must be richer than the object-language, since it describes its sentences and syntax. The metalanguage is included within set theory and binary logic. The metalanguage must be a copy of the language-object so that what can be said with it can also be expressed by the metalanguage.

Metalanguage in computing

The metalanguage in computing is used to describe program strings precisely. In the year 1950, in the field of computing, there were two types of problems for the composition of computer programs:

1. Lack of the design of a mathematical language to express an algorithm. The inability to translate programs into computational code.

The first problem was solved thanks to the creation of the discipline of design of computer programs, and the second question was solved thanks to the generation of compilers that are defined as a metalanguage, being a program that reads a program.

Computer compilers are based on programming languages. One of the most widely used is the BNF (Backus-Naur Form) created by John Backus and Peter Naur, being independently developed by Noam Chomsky, also known as the Chomsky TYPE2 model hierarchy.

Compilers generate a parsing by detecting most errors in the source code and translating it into an equivalent program in another language (object code).