Metalinguistic commentary in borderland works of art: sociolinguistic analysis

Interest in the study of meta-linguistic commentary is driven by relevant issues of mutual understanding and intercultural communication in the modern world. The subject of the research is the sociolinguistic conditioning of meta-linguistic commentary in the literature of the Anglo-Celtic borderland. The aim of the study is to identify the sociolinguistic features of meta-linguistic comments in artistic works about the Anglo-Celtic border. The material for the study consists of four novels by L. Becket about the Anglo-Celtic borderland of the mid-20th century. Sociolinguistic characteristics of meta-linguistic comments are identified in the artistic works about the Anglo-Celtic border, the plots of which are already conditioned by the problem of mutual understanding among speakers of different languages and cultures. A classification of the objects of meta-linguistic commentary in the novels is carried out. The authors examine meta-linguistic comments in graphic, phonetic, and grammatical forms, as well as meta-linguistic comments on lexical phenomena. Cases of meta-linguistic commentary on extralinguistic reality, serving as reflection on speech behavior, are analyzed. Attention is paid to the use of linguistic terminology in the meta-linguistic discourse of characters. The methods of research include sociolinguistic analysis, functional-contextual method, and descriptive method with techniques of analysis, generalization, and classification. The main conclusions of the conducted research are the identification of the dependence of the content and object of meta-linguistic commentary on the sociolinguistic parameters of language and cultural diglossia in the borderland. Meta-linguistic commentary in the works of the borderland appears as a complex phenomenon operating on both surface and deep levels using terminology and figurative means, directly relating to linguistic and extralinguistic levels. Figurative means replace more complex and specialized linguistic terminology, as meta-linguistic commentary is based on intuitive thinking about language phenomena. A special contribution of the authors to the research of the topic is the detailed analysis of the meta-linguistic reasoning of the narrator and characters and the systematic description of the objects of meta-linguistic commentary. The novelty of this work lies in the identification of the formats of manifestation of the sociolinguistic conditioning of meta-linguistic commentary in the literature of the borderland: in the thematic reflections on the use of linguistic units, in the evaluation of the speech behavior of social groups and individuals, and in the comparative analysis of linguistic phenomena and speech behavior in the context of cultural-linguistic interaction.

Lillian Beckwith, Gaelic, Isle of Skye, Western Scotland, metalanguage, metalinguistic commentary, sociolinguistics, reflexive, Borderland literature, idiostyle