Noun

(linguistics, translation studies, critical theory) Any language or vocabulary of specialized terms used to describe or analyze a language or linguistic process.

* 2005 , Michael Cronin, Training for the New Millennium: Pedagogies for translation and interpreting , edited by Martha Tennent, Benjamins Translation Library, p. 255:

In order to talk or theorise about phenomena, one inevitably uses a language that is in effect a metalanguage , a special instance of language that allows the theorist to stand back and describe what is happening.

(computing) Any similar language used to define a programming language.

Noun

(-)

(linguistics, lexicography) The study of lexicography

*{{quote-book, 1986, Robert Ilson, Lexicography: an emerging international profession, pageurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=QUW8AAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA101, page=101

, passage=Metalexicography can be divided into five fields of interest; the first is lexicographic theory

*{{quote-book, 1988, Ladislav Zgusta et al., t

Lexicography today: an annotated bibliography of the theory of lexicography citation , passage=This is a bibliography of works that deal with the theory, methods, and procedures of lexicography (in short, with what is called in French and German metalexicography ) }}