Metalanguage and Identity
From Narration to Reflection

By (author) David Evans,Manel Herat

ISBN13: 9781350497856

Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Format: Hardback

Published: 16/10/2025

Availability: Not yet available

Description
How does language attain to rear view reflection and then timeless analysis? How does language garner its conceptualisation in order to do this? This book is an exploration of the process in which everyday narrative language can become reflective and then analytical. Narrative language is viewed as a way of ‘becoming’ within the flow of time and therefore life. Evans and Herat show that there are levels in language that correspond with conceptual structures existing in wider society, which shape the formation of a metalanguage. They explore how metaphor is an important creative tool in raising language to a more conceptual level in the constitution of a metalanguage. The book considers the development of different strands of metalanguage, for example, mind-based logic, physically based metaphor and social grammar, to provide a fuller account of language and identity by challenging sweeping existential accounts of language. By studying the formation and application of metalanguage, the authors show it can help develop a more questioning, dialogic critical pedagogy in education to accustom students to develop critical awareness.
List of Figures Introduction Part I: Language and Being 1. Philosophy of Language 2. Language as Stream of Consciousness Part II: Linguistic Development 3. Levels and Hierarchies of Language: Structuralism and Post-Structuralism 4. Language and Urban Discourse as Subjective Experience 5. Cognitive Linguistics Part III: The Development of Metalanguage 6. Towards a Metalanguage 7. The Reflective Process Part IV: Pedagogy 8. Being and Becoming; Sameness and Difference 9. Metalanguage, Ethics and Curriculum 10. Metalanguage and Critical Pedagogical Discourse Conclusion Index
  • Sociolinguistics
  • Professional & Vocational
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List Price: £95.00