Metalanguage

A 'metalanguage' is a linguistic term for a type of language that can be used to describe (or analyze) (the properties of) another language (or symbolic system).

Roman Jakobson

Roman Jakobson includes the metalingual function in his list of the functions of language.

More generally, any descriptive discourse such as literary criticism can be said to function as a metalanguage.

Jacques Lacan

In 1956 Jacques Lacan reaffirms Jakobson's view on the metalingual function of all language: "all language implies a metalanguage, its already a metalanguage of its own register."

However, in 1960, Lacan states the opposite, arguing that "no metalanguage can be spoken."

Lacan rejects the very possibility of a metalinguistic dimension, denies the existence of any metalanguage.

Lacan follows Heidegger's view of language as a "house of being" of which it is impossible to step outside.

Lacan does not deny that there is a beyond of language, but he does argue that this beyond is not of a kind that could finally anchor meaning.

There is no transcendental signified, no way that language could "tell the truth about truth."

Other of the Other

The same point is also expressed in the phrase, "there is no Other of the Other."

If the Other is the guarantee of the coherence of the subject's discourse, then the falsity of this guarantee is revealed by the fact that the guarantor himself lacks such a guarantee.

Psychoanalytic Treatment

In a clinical context, this means that there is no metalanguage of the transference, no point outside the transference from which it could be finally interpreted and 'liquidated'.

See Also

• Language