In Logic and Linguistics, a "metal" is a language used to describe something about another language (object languages). Formal syntactic models for grammatical description, e.g., generative grammar, are a type of metalanguage. More broadly, a metalanguage can refer to any terminology or language used to describe a language itself—a grammatical description, for example, or a discussion about the use of a language.

The origin of metalanguage in logic.

The introduction of the concept of metalanguage is due to logic, but in linguistics its meaning varies according to the researcher's theoretical approach. Logic proposes a concept of metalanguage in terms of epistemic knowledge – grounded in the real world.

Metalinguistics and language

Researchers such as Coupland and Javorski (1998) define metalanguage as the language used to describe language in their quest to understand how to comprehend linguistic use without metalinguistics. However, they also noted that the language they refer to cannot be considered in isolation from the rest of the world.

In “Metalinguistics as a Linguistic Problem,” Roman Jakobson tells us that “Language needs to be investigated in the full variety of its functions. The profile of these functions requires a concise assessment of the constituent factors of any speech event, in any act of verbal communication. The ADDRESSER sends a MESSAGE to the ADDRESSEE. To be operative, the message needs a CONTEXT to which it refers (a referent, in another, somewhat ambiguous, nomenclature), which can be apprehended by the receiver and which is verbal or capable of being verbalized; a complete, or at least partially complete, CODE common to the sender and the receiver (or, in other words, to the encoder and the decoder of the message); and, finally, a CONTACT.” ['CONTACT'], a physical channel and a psychological connection between the sender and the receiver, enabling them to enter into and remain in communication.”