‌‌‌‌　　英：metalanguage; 法：metalangage

‌‌‌‌　　元语言是语言学中的技术性术语，表示用以描述各种语言属性的任何形式的语言。罗曼·雅各布森把元语言功能纳入了他的语言功能清单 (Jakobson, 1960:25).

‌‌‌‌　　拉康对于元语言的最早提及出现在1956年，他在当时响应雅各布森的观，点，认为所有的语言皆带有元语言的功能，“所有的语言皆隐含着一种元语言，它已然是在其自身辖域中的一种元语言”(S3,226).

‌‌‌‌　　几年之后，在1960年，他的说法则恰好相反，他在此时指出“没有任何元语言是能够被言说的”(E, 311)。透过此种评论，拉康似乎想说的是，因为每一种旨在固定语言意义的尝试皆必须在语言中来进行，所以便不可能有任何逃离语言的出口，即没有“外部”。这一点会令人想到海德格尔有关不可能出离“语言之家”的观点。此外，这一点与“文本之外一无所有”(iln'y a rien hors dutexte)的结构主义主旨看似相似，但不尽相同：拉康并不否认存在着某种超越语言的范畴（这一超越即实在界），不过他又指出这一超越并不属于某种能够最终锚定意义的范畴。换句话说，没有任何超验的所指，也没有任何办法能够让语言“讲述有关真理的真理”(Ec,867-8)。同样的观点也被表达在“没有大他者的大他者”这句格言之中；如果说大他者是主体话语的一致性的担保，那么这一担保的虚假性便会透过担保者自身缺乏这样一种担保的事实而被揭示出来。在一种临床的语境下来看，这就意味着没有转移的元语言，在转移之外没有任何能够让它最终得到解释和“肃清”的地点。

‌‌‌‌　　(metalangage) Metalanguage is the technical term in linguistics for any form of languagewhich is used to describe the properties of language. Roman Jakobson includes themetalingual function in his list of the functions of language (Jakobson, 1960:25).

‌‌‌‌　　Lacan's first reference to metalanguage comes in 1956, when he echoes Jakobson'sview on the metalingual function of all language: 'all language implies a metalanguage, it's already a metalanguage of its own register' (S3,226).

‌‌‌‌　　A few years later, in 1960, he says precisely the opposite, arguing that 'nometalanguage can be spoken' (E, 311). What Lacan appears to mean by this remark isthat, since every attempt to fix the meaning of language must be done in language, therecan be no escape from language, no 'outside'. This is reminiscent of Heidegger's viewson the impossibility of exiting 'the house of language'. This also appears similar to thestructuralist theme of il n'y a rien hors du texte ('there is nothing outside the text'), but itis not the same; Lacan does not deny that there is a beyond of language (this beyond isthe real), but he does argue that this beyond is not of a kind that could finally anchormeaning. There is, in other words, no transcendental signified, no way that languagecould 'tell the truth about truth' (Ec, 867-8). The same point is also expressed in the phrase;there is no Other of the Other'(E,311);if the Other is the guarantee of thecoherence of the subject's discourse,then the falsity of this guarantee is revealed by thefact that the guarantor himself lacks such a guarantee.In a clinical context,this meansthat there is no metalanguage of the transference,no point outside the transference fromwhich it could be finally interpreted and 'liquidated'.