The AI-powered English dictionary
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(linguistics) Treating words as words, rather than interacting with their meaning. quotations examples
Mary is still one of the most popular girl's names. This represents a metalinguistic use of Mary: the case where we cite a linguistic expression in order to say something about it qua linguistic expression.
2002, Rodney Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language
Pertaining to metalinguistics. examples