metanouns

Metanouns are a proposed category of linguistic items whose primary referent is a linguistic category rather than a concrete or individual entity. They function at a meta-linguistic level, used to talk about nouns and noun-related properties within discourse about language, grammar, or semantics. The concept is used to describe words that name categories such as noun, kind, class, type, or category itself, rather than items in the world.

In practice, metanouns behave like ordinary nouns in many syntactic environments. They can be subjects, objects, or complements in sentences and may take determiners, number marking, or articles in languages that allow them. Some researchers view metanouns as distinct from typical nominals because their referents are abstract linguistic classifications rather than physical referents.

Common examples cited include the words noun, proper noun, common noun, countable noun, uncountable noun, term, category, class, kind, type, and name when used to discuss grammar. For example: “The term ‘noun’ is a metanoun in this analysis.”

The term is not universally standardized and its use varies. Some linguists describe metanouns as metalinguistic nouns or as a subcategory within nominal terminology, while others prefer to describe them as ordinary nominals with abstract referents. The concept is mainly of interest in discussions of grammar pedagogy, linguistic theory, and lexicography.

See also: metalinguistics, nominal classification, lexicon, terminology.