Autonymy

Explanation

Autonymy occurs when a linguistic expression does not denote its ordinary object but refers to itself as an expression. In “‘Tree’ has four letters,” the topic is not a plant but a word form. This apparently small shift enables grammar, dictionaries, language criticism, and much scientific metalanguage. Quotation marks or italics may signal it, but they are neither necessary nor sufficient; the decisive factor is the level of use. Autonymy must therefore not be equated with quotation, every kind of mention, or the self-reference of entire propositions. The concept reveals how language can make part of its own material or conventional form an object of discourse without requiring a medium located wholly outside language.

Movement of thought

1. An expression first activates its ordinary meaning and appears to indicate an object, event, or concept in the world. 2. The sentence withdraws that ordinary reference and treats the sound sequence, written form, or expression unit itself as its object. 3. Typographic or syntactic cues help readers switch between using the expression and mentioning its form. 4. A counter-test asks whether a predicate genuinely applies to the expression itself and separates autonymy from quotation, metaphor, and semantic self-reference. 5. Language returns to its own surface and thereby gains an observational level from which its forms can be described.

Scientific use case

Semantics, philosophy of language, and corpus annotation examine use-mention distinctions, quotation forms, and metalinguistic predicates. Formal analyses must state which level is referred to and how cues resolve ambiguity.

Example

A teacher writes, “‘Ran’ is a finite verb form, whereas ‘run’ can be the infinitive.” Both expressions are being treated as linguistic forms rather than events.

Counterexample

In “The tree is losing its leaves,” tree denotes an object or class of trees. There is neither a predicate about the word form nor any other indication of autonymous use.

Distinction

Distinguish autonymy from quotation as reproduction of an utterance, metalanguage as a broader descriptive system, sentential self-reference, mention of a concept, and typographic marking alone.

Effect on thought and perception

Autonymy makes the expression itself observable, stabilises metalinguistic analysis, and prevents discourse about words from being confused with discourse about their ordinary referents.

Resonance

The sign no longer points through itself but bends reference back toward its own shape; language becomes both the medium and the object of attention.

Cite this entry

Reich, Michael (Hrsg./ed.): „Autonymy“. Atlas der Sprache, AT-METZ1-0010. ATLAS 260, data model 1.6.0. https://atlasoflanguage.com/concept/AT-METZ1-0010

https://atlasoflanguage.com/concept/AT-METZ1-0010

References for the historical section

• Otto Jespersen, The Philosophy of Grammar, work first published 1924; inspected later printing with November 1934 afterword, exact printing year unresolved · Chapter VII, Subordination, printed p. 96, note on quotation words

  Selected historical witness, not a complete genealogy or a first English attestation. Atlas comparisons and applications are original editorial interpretations. OCR of a later printing containing a 1934 afterword. The catalogue’s 1924 date identifies the work’s first publication, not the inspected copy. Historical judgments about languages and social groups require critical distance.