Speaking of Language: Reflections on Metalanguage Research in NLP

Nathan Schneider; Antonios Anastasopoulos

doi:10.18653/v1/2026.bigpicture-main.9

Speaking of Language: Reflections on Metalanguage Research in NLP

Nathan Schneider, Antonios Anastasopoulos

Correct Metadata for

Use this form to create a GitHub issue with structured data describing the correction. You will need a GitHub account. Once you create that issue, the correction will be reviewed by a staff member.

⚠️ Mobile Users: Submitting this form to create a new issue will only work with github.com, not the GitHub Mobile app.

Important: The Anthology treat PDFs as authoritative. Please use this form only to correct data that is out of line with the PDF. See our corrections guidelines if you need to change the PDF.

Title Adjust the title. Retain tags such as <fixed-case>.

Authors Adjust author names and order to match the PDF.

Abstract Correct abstract if needed. Retain XML formatting tags such as <tex-math>. You may use <b>...</b> for bold, <i>...</i> for italic, and <url>...</url> for URLs.

Verification against PDF Ensure that the new title/authors match the snapshot below. (If there is no snapshot or it is too small, consult the PDF.)

Authors concatenated from the text boxes above:

ALL author names match the snapshot above—including middle initials, hyphens, and accents.

Abstract

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.

Anthology ID:: 2026.bigpicture-main.9
Volume:: Proceedings of The Big Picture v2: Crafting a Research Narrative
Month:: July
Year:: 2026
Address:: San Diego, CA, USA
Editors:: Yanai Elazar, Allyson Ettinger, Nora Kassner, Sebastian Ruder
Venues:: BigPicture | WS
SIG:
Publisher:: Association for Computational Linguistics
Note:
Pages:: 107–118
Language:
URL:: https://aclanthology.org/2026.bigpicture-main.9/
DOI:: 10.18653/v1/2026.bigpicture-main.9
Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):: Nathan Schneider and Antonios Anastasopoulos. 2026. Speaking of Language: Reflections on Metalanguage Research in NLP. In Proceedings of The Big Picture v2: Crafting a Research Narrative, pages 107–118, San Diego, CA, USA. Association for Computational Linguistics.
Cite (Informal):: Speaking of Language: Reflections on Metalanguage Research in NLP (Schneider & Anastasopoulos, BigPicture 2026)
Copy Citation:
PDF:: https://aclanthology.org/2026.bigpicture-main.9.pdf

PDF Cite Search Fix data

Export citation

BibTeX
MODS XML
Endnote
Preformatted

@inproceedings{schneider-anastasopoulos-2026-speaking,
    title = "Speaking of Language: Reflections on Metalanguage Research in {NLP}",
    author = "Schneider, Nathan  and
      Anastasopoulos, Antonios",
    editor = "Elazar, Yanai  and
      Ettinger, Allyson  and
      Kassner, Nora  and
      Ruder, Sebastian",
    booktitle = "Proceedings of The Big Picture v2: Crafting a Research Narrative",
    month = jul,
    year = "2026",
    address = "San Diego, CA, USA",
    publisher = "Association for Computational Linguistics",
    url = "https://aclanthology.org/2026.bigpicture-main.9/",
    doi = "10.18653/v1/2026.bigpicture-main.9",
    pages = "107--118",
    ISBN = "979-8-89176-416-3",
    abstract = "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."
}

Download as File

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<modsCollection xmlns="http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3">
<mods ID="schneider-anastasopoulos-2026-speaking">
    <titleInfo>
        <title>Speaking of Language: Reflections on Metalanguage Research in NLP</title>
    </titleInfo>
    <name type="personal">
        <namePart type="given">Nathan</namePart>
        <namePart type="family">Schneider</namePart>
        <role>
            <roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">author</roleTerm>
        </role>
    </name>
    <name type="personal">
        <namePart type="given">Antonios</namePart>
        <namePart type="family">Anastasopoulos</namePart>
        <role>
            <roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">author</roleTerm>
        </role>
    </name>
    <originInfo>
        <dateIssued>2026-07</dateIssued>
    </originInfo>
    <typeOfResource>text</typeOfResource>
    <relatedItem type="host">
        <titleInfo>
            <title>Proceedings of The Big Picture v2: Crafting a Research Narrative</title>
        </titleInfo>
        <name type="personal">
            <namePart type="given">Yanai</namePart>
            <namePart type="family">Elazar</namePart>
            <role>
                <roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">editor</roleTerm>
            </role>
        </name>
        <name type="personal">
            <namePart type="given">Allyson</namePart>
            <namePart type="family">Ettinger</namePart>
            <role>
                <roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">editor</roleTerm>
            </role>
        </name>
        <name type="personal">
            <namePart type="given">Nora</namePart>
            <namePart type="family">Kassner</namePart>
            <role>
                <roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">editor</roleTerm>
            </role>
        </name>
        <name type="personal">
            <namePart type="given">Sebastian</namePart>
            <namePart type="family">Ruder</namePart>
            <role>
                <roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">editor</roleTerm>
            </role>
        </name>
        <originInfo>
            <publisher>Association for Computational Linguistics</publisher>
            <place>
                <placeTerm type="text">San Diego, CA, USA</placeTerm>
            </place>
        </originInfo>
        <genre authority="marcgt">conference publication</genre>
        <identifier type="isbn">979-8-89176-416-3</identifier>
    </relatedItem>
    <abstract>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.</abstract>
    <identifier type="citekey">schneider-anastasopoulos-2026-speaking</identifier>
    <identifier type="doi">10.18653/v1/2026.bigpicture-main.9</identifier>
    <location>
        <url>https://aclanthology.org/2026.bigpicture-main.9/</url>
    </location>
    <part>
        <date>2026-07</date>
        <extent unit="page">
            <start>107</start>
            <end>118</end>
        </extent>
    </part>
</mods>
</modsCollection>

Download as File

%0 Conference Proceedings
%T Speaking of Language: Reflections on Metalanguage Research in NLP
%A Schneider, Nathan
%A Anastasopoulos, Antonios
%Y Elazar, Yanai
%Y Ettinger, Allyson
%Y Kassner, Nora
%Y Ruder, Sebastian
%S Proceedings of The Big Picture v2: Crafting a Research Narrative
%D 2026
%8 July
%I Association for Computational Linguistics
%C San Diego, CA, USA
%@ 979-8-89176-416-3
%F schneider-anastasopoulos-2026-speaking
%X 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.
%R 10.18653/v1/2026.bigpicture-main.9
%U https://aclanthology.org/2026.bigpicture-main.9/
%U https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2026.bigpicture-main.9
%P 107-118

Download as File

Markdown (Informal)

[Speaking of Language: Reflections on Metalanguage Research in NLP](https://aclanthology.org/2026.bigpicture-main.9/) (Schneider & Anastasopoulos, BigPicture 2026)

Speaking of Language: Reflections on Metalanguage Research in NLP (Schneider & Anastasopoulos, BigPicture 2026)

ACL

Nathan Schneider and Antonios Anastasopoulos. 2026. Speaking of Language: Reflections on Metalanguage Research in NLP. In Proceedings of The Big Picture v2: Crafting a Research Narrative, pages 107–118, San Diego, CA, USA. Association for Computational Linguistics.