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Metalinguistic density as an indicator of sharedness: Economic and financial terms in online interaction
Author(s)
Date Issued
2020
Journal
ISSN
0271-5309
Citation
Language & Communication, Mar 2020, vol. 71, pp. 123-135.
Type
Peer Reviewed Journal Article
Abstract
Metalanguage, language about language, is one of language's most creative and intriguing properties. Yet it has rarely been crystallised as an analytical focus, nor has its occurrence been systematically described or scrutinised. This paper employs a focus on (explicit) metalanguage as a means to detect the extent to which a term and its denotational norms/indexical links are shared across a subset of language users. It argues that the relative amount of metalanguage focusing on a term, the term's ‘metalinguistic density’, offers insights about the term's status in a particular community. Specifically, it proposes the categories of Contentious, Common, and Unstable Terms to describe the contextually influenced behaviour of terms.
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