metalanguage is one of language functions and is related to messages that highlight the very language used in communication. In this way, it is identified in verbal and non-verbal texts that turn in on themselves, like a film that talks about cinema. A different phenomenon from intertextuality, which is configured in the dialogue between two or more texts.
Read too: Conative function: emphasis on the recipient with the intention of persuading him
Metalanguage summary
Metalanguage is one of the functions of language.
Verbal and non-verbal texts can be metalinguistic.
Metalinguistic texts refer to language itself.
Intertextuality is the dialogue between texts.
Video lesson on the metalinguistic function
What is metalanguage?
Language is used for communication. Through it, we send messages. There are several types of language, such as cinematographic, literary, poetic, among others. Thus, metalanguage is considered one of the functions of language. It can be understood as a message that highlights the very language used
in it. For example, a romance that talks about literature, a film whose theme is cinema, a poem that talks about poetry, etc.Do not stop now... There's more after the ad ;)
Metalanguage in literature
Metalanguage in literature is quite common, especially in poetry, as we can see in the sonnet “To a poet”, by the Parnassian writer Olavo Bilac (1865-1918). In this case, the theme of poem it is the poetic making itself:
Far from the barren turmoil of the street,
Benedictine writes! in the warmth
From the cloister, in patience and quiet,
He works and insists, and files, and suffers and sweats!
But let the job disguise itself in force
From the effort: and a living plot is built
In such a way that the image is naked
Rich but sober, like a Greek temple
Don't show the torture at the factory
From the master. And natural, the effect pleases
Not to mention the scaffolding of the building:
Because Beauty, twin of Truth,
Pure art, enemy of artifice,
It is strength and grace in simplicity.
Read too: Referential function - function of language that communicates objectively
Metalanguage in painting
in the painting The girls, by the Spanish painter Diego Velázquez (1599-1660), it is possible to observe the presence of a painter (Velázquez himself), with brush and palette in hand. Thus, the painting evidences the very act of painting.
Metalanguage in music
In the excerpt from the lyrics of the song “This song”, composed by Lulu Santos, the metalanguage is shown when O I lyrical refers to the song itself being sung:
I made you this song
to ask you for forgiveness
I have been so vain
in the insane search
for gratification
[...]
Metalanguage in the cinema
![Poster for the movie “Cinema Paradiso”.[1]](/f/32e519e7c04ca33637aeebf26c2da851.jpg)
The film Cinema Paradiso, an Oscar-winning 1988 French-Italian production by Giuseppe Tornatore and tells the story of Totó, a boy who discovers the magic of cinema through his great friend, the projectionist Alfredo.
Metalanguage in advertising
In this advertisement, referring to the National Meeting of Researchers in Advertising and Propaganda, the metalanguage is evidenced when the text mentions advertising.
Metalanguage in grammars
See this excerpt from the introductory chapter of the fourth edition of the Descriptive grammar of Portuguese, by Mario A. Perini, published by Ática, in 2002|1|:
“Portuguese grammar studies are seriously out of date, from two points of view. First, they have been influenced by a questionable attitude towards the object of study and its teaching. I discussed this problem in my book For a new Portuguese grammar, [...].”
Yet, metalanguage in grammars goes beyond a mention of them in the grammar book itself. So, when a grammar uses a clause to define what a clause is, a verb to conceptualize verb etc., the metalinguistic function is being used.
It is possible to verify this in this prayer, taken from the ninth edition of the Contemporary grammar of the Portuguese language, by José de Nicola and Ulisses Infante, published by Scipione, in 1992|2|: “The prayer is characterized by the presence of a verb”. Thus, the verb that makes this sentence also a clause is the verb “to be”.
Read too: Emotive function – language function that keeps the focus on the sender
Differences between metalanguage and intertextuality
For simplicity, let's just say that metalanguage is when a text refers to itself, that is, a text that speaks of the text itself. already the intertextuality is a dialogue text with one or more texts, whether verbal or non-verbal. In this way, we can see the intertextuality in the lyrics of the song “Língua”, by Caetano Veloso:
I like to feel my tongue rubbing
The language of Luís de Camões
I like to be and to be
And I want to dedicate myself
Creating prosody confusions
And a riot of parodies
that shorten pains
And steal colors like chameleons
I like the Person in the Person
From the rose to the rose
And I know that poetry is for prose
As love is to friendship
And who can deny that this one is superior to him?
And let the Portuguese starve to death
“My homeland is my language”
Speak Mangueira!
Speech!
[...]
Flower of Lazio Sambodromo
Lusamérica Latin powder
What you want
what can
this language
We see that the text above dialogues with Camões and Noel Rosa, and quotes Fernando Pessoa — “My homeland is my language” — in reference to his work book of unrest, in which he writes: “My homeland is the Portuguese language”. Also talks with Olavo Bilac, whose poem “Língua Portuguesa” begins with the line: “Última flor do Lácio, uncultured and beautiful”.
Solved exercises on metalanguage
Question 1 - (And either)
Idiomatic expressions
Idioms or idiomatic expressions are expressions that are characterized by not identifying their meaning through their individual words or in the literal sense. It is not possible to translate them into another language and they originate from slang and cultures of each region. In the different regions of the country, there are several idiomatic expressions that integrate the so-called dialects.
Available at: brasilescola.uol.com.br. (adapted).
The text clarifies the reader about idiomatic expressions, using a metalinguistic resource that is characterized by
A) influence the reader on attitudes to be taken in relation to prejudice against speakers who use idiomatic expressions.
B) expressing prejudiced attitudes towards the less favored classes that use idiomatic expressions.
C) publicize the various existing idiomatic expressions and control the interlocutor's attention, activating the communication channel between them.
D) define what idiomatic expressions are and how they are part of the daily life of the speaker belonging to different regional groups.
E) to be concerned with aesthetically elaborating the meanings of idiomatic expressions existing in different regions.
Resolution
alternative D. When defining idiomatic expressions, the text uses the language (Portuguese) to expose characteristics related to it. Thus, we have a language being used to refer to expressions in it.
Question 2 - (And either)
Does not have translation
[…]
There on the hill, if I make a falsetto
Risoleta soon gives up French and English
The slang that our hill created
Very soon the city accepted and used
[…]
These people nowadays who have a mania for exhibition
Does not understand that samba has no translation in French
All that the trickster pronounces
With a soft voice, he's Brazilian, he's already passed from Portuguese
Love on the hill is love for chuchu
The samba rhymes are not I love you
And this business of hello, hello boy and hello Johnny
It can only be phone conversation
ROSE, N. In: SOBRAL, João J. v. The translation of the babes. Portuguese Language Magazine, year 4, no. 54. São Paulo: Segment, Apr. 2010 (fragment).
The songs of Noel Rosa, a Brazilian composer from Vila Isabel, despite revealing a keen concern for the artist with his time and with the political-cultural changes in Brazil, in the early 1920s, are still modern. In this fragment of the samba “Não tem Tradução”, through the use of metalanguage, the poet proposes
A) incorporate new customs of French and American origin, with foreign words.
B) respect and preserve standard Portuguese as a way of strengthening the language of Brazil.
C) value Brazilian popular speech as a linguistic heritage and a legitimate form of national identity.
D) change the social values prevailing at the time, with the advent of the new and hot rhythm of Brazilian popular music.
E) to mock the carioca trickery, acculturated by the invasion of ethnic values of more developed societies.
Resolution
Alternative C. Noel Rosa's lyrics are a samba that talks about samba, and states that this genre of text has no translation. In this way, there is an appreciation of Brazilian popular speech as a linguistic heritage and a legitimate form of national identity.
image credit
[1] Kathy Hutchins / shutterstock
By Warley Souza
Portuguese teacher
