Metalanguage Reflection in Fiction: From the Object of Reflection to the Typology of Reflexives

Abstract

Meta-reflexivity is an interdisciplinary object of psychology, psycholinguistics, traditional linguistics, and communication studies. The authors classified reflexives sampled from contemporary Russian fiction based on the features of the object and the level of metalanguage reflection. They used the method of typologization, as well as the semantic and discursive analyses, to develop a multilevel typology of reflexives. Based on the object of reflection, the reflexives were divided into the statements about the sign form and the statements about its meaning. On the second tier of typology, the statements about the sign form were divided into reflexives of external and internal forms whereas the statements about the meaning were divided into reflexives of close and distant meaning. Another taxonomy was based on the metalanguage reflection process as superficial or deep. The superficial metalanguage reflection generated stating reflexives that recorded the observed characteristics of the sign. The deep metalanguage reflection yielded operational reflexives that reflected the comprehension results. The research opens up new prospects for further scientific interpretation of the ontology and epistemology of metalanguage reflection, as well as contributes to the autoreference studies. The results of metalanguage reflection in fiction proved to be heterogenic in content. The taxonomy depended on the features of the object and the peculiarities of the metalanguage reflection process.

Keywords

• metalanguage reflection
• reflexive
• cognitive-discursive situation
• theory of naive linguistics
• taxonomy of reflexives