Metalanguage

Social and Ideological Perspectives

Adam Jaworski, Nikolas Coupland, Dariusz Galasinski, Adam Jaworski, Nikolas Coupland, Dariusz Galasinski

• Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9783110178777
• eBook ISBN: 9783110907377
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Metalanguage brings together new, original contributions on people's knowledge about language and representations of language, e.g., representations of dialects, styles, utterances, stances and goals in relation to sociolinguistic theory, sociolinguistic accounts of language variation, and accounts of linguistic usage. Drawing on a variety of data sources such as lay and linguists' metalanguage, the media, parliamentary debates, education, and retail shopping, the book comprises four sections and an integrative commentary. The main thematic parts deal with metalanguage in relation to the following issues: the theory of metalanguage, ideology, social evaluation, and stylisation. Other key themes discussed include constructionism, identity formation, in- and out-grouping, deception, discrimination, manipulation, and the increasing semiotisation of the socio-cultural landscape. Apart from the strictly linguistic concerns, some contributions focus on discourse in a broader sense examining meta-commentary construed in modalities other than language.

The book follows from and complements a great tradition of the study of metalanguage, reflexivity, and metapragmatics, and offers a new, integrating perspective from various fields of sociolinguistics: perceptual dialectology, variationism, pragmatics, critical discourse analysis, and social semiotics. The broad range of theoretical issues and accessible style of writing will appeal to advanced students and researchers in sociolinguistics and in other disciplines across the social sciences and humanities including linguists, communication researchers, anthropologists, sociologists, social psychologists, critical and social theorists. The book includes chapters by Deborah Cameron, Nikolas Coupland, Dariusz Galasinski, Peter Garrett, Adam Jaworski, Tore Kristiansen, Ulrike Hanna Meinhof, Dennis Preston, Theo van Leeuwen, Kay Richardson, Itesh Sachdev, Angie Williams, and John Wilson.

Table of contents

• Contributors
• Introduction
• Metalanguage: Why now?
• Part 1. Approaches to metalanguage
• Introduction to Part 1
• Sociolinguistic perspectives on metalanguage: Reflexivity, evaluation and ideology
• Notes on the role of metapragmatic awareness in language use
• Folk metalanguage
• Part 2. Metalanguage and ideological construction
• Introduction to Part 2
• Metalanguage in social life
• Restoring the order: Metalanguage in the press coverage of Princess Diana’s Panorama interview
• Lying, politics and the metalinguistics of truth
• Part 3. Metalanguage and social evaluation
• Introduction to Part 3
• Social meaning and norm-ideals for speech in a Danish community
• Adolescents’ lexical repertoires of peer evaluation: Boring prats and English snobs
• Teachers’ beliefs about students’ talk and silence: Constructing academic success and failure through metapragmatic comments
• Part 4. Metalanguage and stylisation
• Introduction to Part 4
• Stylised deception
• Metadiscourses of culture in British TV commercials
• Retroshopping: Sentiment, sensation and symbolism on the high street
• Commentary
• Out of the bottle: The social life of metalanguage
• Index