Speaking of Language: Reflections on Metalanguage Research in NLP
arXiv:2604.0264530.2h-index: 2
AI Analysis
It addresses the conceptual problem of metalanguage for NLP researchers, but is incremental as it primarily reviews and organizes existing ideas.
The paper defines metalanguage in the context of NLP and LLMs, discusses existing research efforts, and proposes future directions for studying metalanguage and metalinguistic tasks.
This work aims to shine a spotlight on the topic of metalanguage. We first define metalanguage, link it to NLP and LLMs, and then discuss our two labs' metalanguage-centered efforts. Finally, we discuss four dimensions of metalanguage and metalinguistic tasks, offering a list of understudied future research directions.