Editing Metalanguage (section)

== Types of metalanguage==

There are a variety of recognized types of metalanguage, including ''embedded'', ''ordered'', and ''nested'' (or ''hierarchical'') metalanguages.

=== <span class="anchor" id="Embedded metalanguage"></span> Embedded ===

An ''embedded metalanguage'' is a language formally, naturally and firmly fixed in an object language. This idea is found in [[Douglas Hofstadter]]'s book, ''[[Gödel, Escher, Bach]]'', in a discussion of the relationship between formal languages and [[number theory]]: "... it is in the nature of any formalization of number theory that its metalanguage is embedded within it."<ref>[[Douglas Hofstadter|Hofstadter, Douglas]]. 1980. [[Gödel, Escher, Bach|''Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid'']]. New York: Vintage Books {{isbn|0-14-017997-6}}</ref>

It occurs in natural, or informal, languages, as well—such as in English, where words such as ''noun'', ''verb'', or even ''word'' describe features and concepts pertaining to the English language itself.

=== Ordered ===

An ''ordered metalanguage'' is analogous to an [[ordered logic]]. An example of an ordered metalanguage is the construction of one metalanguage to discuss an object language, followed by the creation of another metalanguage to discuss the first, etc.

=== Nested ===

A ''nested'' (or ''hierarchical'') ''metalanguage'' is similar to an ordered metalanguage in that each level represents a greater degree of abstraction. However, a nested metalanguage differs from an ordered one in that each level includes the one below.

The [[paradigmatic]] example of a nested metalanguage comes from the [[Scientific classification|Linnean taxonomic system]] in biology. Each level in the system incorporates the one below it. The language used to discuss genus is also used to discuss species; the one used to discuss orders is also used to discuss genera, etc., up to kingdoms.