KAZIMIERAS ŽUPERKA

Šiauliai University

THERE'S NO OTHER WAY TO SAY IT (METALINGUISTIC COMMENTS IN TEXTS)

This article discusses the functional-semantic group of metalinguistic comments (MC)¹, whose dominant expression may be considered the phrase there's no other way to say it. These comments express the speaker’s conviction that a particular word or utterance is appropriate for naming the matter at hand: the speaker says that they have found (or at least think they have found) the optimal way to express it. In terms of function and semantics, comments in this group contrast with comments indicating a search for an expression (how shall I put it)², doubt about the aptness of an expression, and the like (if one may say so; one might say; I would say; let us put it this way; I’ll say this), as well as with indications of an unsuitable expression (e.g., not the right word; you couldn’t put it more foolishly). In addition to emphasizing and commenting on the expression, the comment may also be seen as a kind of justification—an effort to forestall a possible objection, a different formulation, or a different naming. In other words, the addresser is not only convinced of the suitability of their own word but also seeks to convince the addressee. (The MC I’m not afraid to use this word. signals even more clearly an intention to guard against an opposing or simply different way of putting it.)

The examples analyzed (over 700) were collected from various sources (contemporary and Soviet-era written and spoken media, fiction and scholarly literature, and colloquial speech), as well as from contexts in Lithuanian provided by the Corpus of Contemporary Lithuanian and the Google search engine.

¹The term is taken from publications by Czech linguists (see Jiřičková 1979; Mareš 1983). This and other terms characteristic of research on metalanguage and metatext have been discussed in the author’s earlier articles (see Župerka 1995; Župerka, Inčiūrienė 2005; Macienė, Župerka 2007), and are therefore used as self-evident in this article.

²For comments in this functional-semantic group, see Župerka 1995.

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CHARACTERISTIC COMMENTS

The MC closest to the principal comment in the functional-semantic group under discussion, there's no other way to say it, are there's no other way to name it (this is even more common than there's no other way to say it), and how else could one say (name; say, name) it. The following MCs also belong to this group, or are at least very close to it: no other word (here) will do; this word is indispensable here; one cannot use another/different word; the true word (name) is this; I can’t find a more precise word; it couldn’t be put better; one cannot bring oneself to say/name it differently; I would not be mistaken in saying, and so on. The conviction expressed by these MCs about the aptness of the utterance being used is not uniform. Some comments assert categorically that an utterance is apt; others make the claim more cautiously, as if with a certain qualification: the addressee might understand that the speaker does not consider the utterance being commented on to be the only or optimal one, but merely suitable for describing the matter at hand in the communicative situation or context. The categorical or non-categorical force of an MC depends on the modal words that accompany it, as well as on grammatical forms of expression. Categorical force is strengthened by certain intensifiers, for example, the adverb by no means alongside otherwise, the particle only with the adverb thus, and the figure of repetition:

That painfully anguished feeling [= To... jausmo] cannot be called anything other than love Ji 2003 23 12; Adolescence – that is the only way I can call the state we are all in now LR 1990 40.

The categorical force of the claim that it is impossible to say it otherwise is reduced by the use of the conditional mood in the MC, by modal verbs such as can, dare (often with negation), and the like: I wouldn’t say/name it otherwise; I couldn’t/couldn’t we/can’t/won’t be able to/don’t dare/don’t know how to say/name it otherwise. For example:

the worst thing is these permanent debtors / I otherwise and wouldn’t call them / permanent debtors, colloq. 1985 (about students); The situation at our company is tragic / a different word I couldn’t use (= use) / because people have been left to their fate Rdj 2007 07 27; I have no doubt about the professionalism of the actors in this production, but I don’t dareto call the troupe anything other thanamateur... KB 1986 3 21.

Some comments closely related to the group under discussion do not claim that the utterance used is optimal, but indicate that it is particularly apt for describing the situation in question:

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It is said: played a political role; nowhere does this saying fit so well as it does with the People’s Seimas [1940]. It is no wonder that L. Dovydėnas began at the State Theatre (LM 1989 08 12); We should be glad that, once the war had swept through, action was taken in time and tens and hundreds of thousands of songs and melodies were saved from destruction (this word really fits here) S. Geda (LM 1986 01 18); We need a financial injection / that will help us keep going in the theatre hall of the Press Palace / I put that very well / the theatre hall of the Press Palace TV 2000 02 21 (the speaker emphasizes the precision of the statement: the palace is not ours, only the hall is).

The speaker usually accompanies their own utterance with comments from the group under discussion. The linguistic expression of an interlocutor or a third party is evaluated this way much less often. The comments most often use the second-person singular in a generic sense, applied primarily to oneself and one’s own words. When the speaker uses the first-person singular, they emphasize themselves more, but contexts with the first-person form are precisely those characterized by devices that soften categorical force.

When comments in the lexical group under discussion are uttered with interrogative intonation (a genuine, not rhetorical question, that is, not an emphatic assertion or denial), or without it but with the particles or, perhaps, maybe, probably, they belong to another group: doubts about the complete appropriateness of the expression. These are comments such as or perhaps it would be appropriate to put it another way / should it be called something else?; it can hardly be called anything else; perhaps it could not be called anything else; it is hard to know what else to call it. For example:

Was it a premonition of disaster? What else could I call it? <t>.

MKs with the adverb kitaip, and with the pronouns joks, kitas, kitoks do not say in what respect the utterance being commented on is appropriate (this can only be understood from the situation or context), whereas MKs with an adjective or adjectival adverb (usually comparative, sometimes superlative or positive) you couldn’t put it better / more aptly / more precisely; (you won’t find) a more beautiful description; the most precise name (would be)... define and specify more precisely why the chosen expressive device is appropriate—that is, for its beauty, aptness, precision, and so on. For example:

Justis Mikutis best captured the difference between them [optimists and pessimists] with irony: for some, a bedbug smells of cognac, while for others, cognac smells of bedbug... You couldn’t put it better! <t>; It is no wonder that we have the saying: guard it like the apple of your eye. Indeed, you couldn’t put it more aptly. Protecting your eyes is essential. No matter how old you are <t>; I blurted out unexpectedly: / “Your mother is a good woman, Jonas!” / When he did not reply, after a while I added: / “And the song is good.” / Indeed, you couldn’t put it more beautifully: when the mother is good, the song is good Marc 34; The expansion of Lithuanian identity is, I think, the most precise name for the manifestations of our spirit,

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without any fear of using the word “expansion” <...> The Latin meaning of expansio—extension, spreading—is the “peaceful” form of this word KT 1989 06 14; But genuine and vile infidelity is betrayal and baseness—those are their true names TMot 1985 9 21.

POSITION OF METALINGUISTIC COMMENTS

The position of the MKs of the group under discussion within a metalinguistic unit can be of four kinds: (a) preposition: the MK is uttered before the linguistic expression being commented on; (b) postposition: the comment follows the linguistic expression whose optimality it confirms; (c) interposition: the MK is inserted into a multiword utterance being commented on; (d) the linguistic expression being commented on is inserted into the comment, separating the elements of the MK. For example:

(a) With bird populations facing catastrophic danger, you couldn’t put it any other way— a c h i c k e n g r a v e y a r d. Since they still lack documentation of their origins Š 2006 11; How else, looking at it from the position of ordinary citizens, can we call this anything other than a steadily growing d i s r e s p e c t f o r p e o p l e b y t h e a u t h o r i t i e s? <t>;

(b) i n c u r a b l e a b u s e (what else can one call people who distribute other people’s money as they see fit) goes unpunished Dlg 2002 10 11; A person who is b e i n g e x p l o i t e d (and what else can you call today’s working conditions for teachers?), cannot develop as a professional <int>;

(c) And that fellow was terribly tired, dragging his feet (there’s simply no other way to put it) a s i f t i e d u p <t>; but he did not lift his foot from the accelerator pedal and with h u m a n l y i m p o s s i b l e— there’s no other way to put it— e f f o r t s he made the engine come alive <int>;

(d) Važiavome į aikštę troleibusu, kurio kitaip, k a i p v a i d u o k l i š k u, negaliu vadinti. Daug jaunų, labai jaunų žmonių (gal keturiolikos...), visi girti, visi rūko, visi bando dainuoti. Tokia buvo ateinančių Naujųjų įžanga KT 1989 2; bendradarbiavimo su okupacine valdžia kitaip k a i p k o l a b o r a v i m u pavadinti negalėtume <t>.

In prepositional cases (a), the MK is a signal of the speaker’s strategy: the addressee is, as it were, warned that a strong word is about to be used. In postposition (b), the added MK is a concluding comment; it establishes and emphasizes the word used and may also be understood as a kind of justification for a stronger expression, whether deliberate or blurted out. The interposition of an MK (c) is closer to postpositional comments, since the most important (strongest, most characterizing) word in the expression is usually uttered before the comment. In (d), it is usually the comment you couldn’t call it anything else (or put it any other way). that is split.

For MK interposition, we could also include emphasis of an evaluative word through repetition—when it is uttered before the MK and repeated after it, for example:

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Joyfully she stepped onto the stage and eagerly, there’s no other way to put it, – eagerly set to work <t>; At that moment one of their [windows] suddenly opened and out of it tumbled, – there’s no other way to put it, that is, tumbled into the air, – some heavy bird with strange wings <int>.

Statistical data on the position of MK were calculated only for metalinguistic units with the MK there’s no other way to say (name) it; how else (after all) could you say (name; say, name) it. Of the 604 examples, postposition proved the most frequent (about 80 percent). Preposition accounts for about 12 percent. Cases where the commented expression is inserted into the MK account for over 6 percent, while the rarest is MK interposition – a little over 2 percent.

USE AND FUNCTION OF METALINGUISTIC UNITS

MKs of the spoken-language group are used in so-called informal registers – mainly in written journalism and in public and private speech. They are very rare in professional and scholarly texts; they may be found in the texts of authors who do not adhere to a strict, dry professional style even in their scholarly work, do not avoid livelier, more vivid language, and speak more personally (albeit using impersonal constructions), e.g.:

Maximalist – there would be no other way to describe it – M. Kū­sis’s demands <...> – to devote a monograph to every more significant proverb Sauk 273; Thus the Solar System forms a rather clearly isolated unit in the space of the Universe, for which is precisely fittingthe name “system” Slav 7.

Such comments are also atypical of literary texts, but, it seems, for quite different reasons. Fiction is granted the greatest freedom of expression (licentia poetica), whereas comments of the there’s no other way to say it group constrain that freedom. For instance, philosopher Arvydas Šliogeris says: “Here S. Geda writes some lines – as the hawthorns bloom, I sowed flax, the seeds like gold in clay hills... he writes them, but does not tell me: this is the only way to say it” (Mt 2007 12 80; emphasis added in the quotation). So does it follow that when a poet says there’s no other way to say it, at that moment, in that text, he is not a poet? Sigitas Geda does not avoid this type of comment in his essays. Two examples from his texts:

This is already a breath of eternity, and there’s no other way to put it here. Such images of eternity and ideality, such comparisons and resonances, were whispered to Maironis by the divine Muse; the poetic revelation is so wondrous that no finer description can be found for it than otherworldly LM 1987 44.

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The expression used by a speaker, which they describe as the optimal means of expression, may be (a) their own, original expression, or (b) a conventional phrase characteristic of the speech situation, even a trope that has become a cliché, e.g.:

(a) It was the highest night of my life. No, no, no other word will do; only when I say “highest” do I see the true color of that night – deep blue, growing lighter, breaking into dawn... P. Dirgėla (Prg 1986 5 53);

(b) If you compare fields to the sea, you will no longer be original. But, as the car speeds southeast from Chișinău, no other word will dofor the vineyards stretching beyond the window. A sea, a veritable boundless sea of vineyards T 1979 08 08.

The collected material containing MKs from the functional-semantic group under discussion shows that these comments are usually used alongside expressive evaluative statements, often with vivid, forceful words and phrases. The evaluation may be positive or negative. Negative evaluations (words and phrases) are used far more often (more than ten times as frequently) and are more varied. Positive (a) and negative (b) evaluative words used in present-day language with comments from the there’s no other way to say it group can be illustrated by the following examples taken from metalinguistic units:

(a) angel, little angel, superhuman (efforts), darling, revival, elite (2 occurrences), fantasy, (simply) genius, eminent (personality), happiness, fabulous (2 occurrences), paradise, (literary) flights, miracle (3 occurrences), masterpiece;

(b) indifference (chained by the bonds of indifference), absurdity, anti-Lithuanian, negligence, swindled, (some kind of) obsession, deplorable (situation), donkey (2 occurrences), (people’s) herd, bandits (2 occurrences), lunatics, mad (project) (2 occurrences), monkey business, nasty thing, hag, (real) botch, circus (3 occurrences), boor, hooliganism, idiot woman, idiots (country of idiots), degradation, desecrates, disinformation, old men (derogatory about men), dilettantish, to wolf down (“to eat”), farce, gang, genocide, cock (about a man), snake pit (about people), animals (about people), graphomania, idiot(s) (6 occurrences), idiotic (3 occurrences), invalids (parade of invalids), perverts (a jumble of generations of perverts), insane (enthusiasts), degenerates, insolence, black (Sunday), bitch (you’re some kind of bitch), (real) war, catastrophic, kitsch, collaboration, commercial (music), bizarre, fool, fools (3 occurrences; philosophy of fools, gang of fools), maniacs, little girls, little boy, (style) mixture, monsters, idiot, some kind of underdevelopment, disrespect (for a person), nonsense (2 occurrences), dishonesty (2 occurrences), failure, disorder, (brotherhood of) scoundrels, nicked, creature (about a person), crazy, mockery (of people), snot-nosed kid (about a young man), malice, provocation, provocative (step), psychosis, unauthorized (construction), feeble-minded people, violence, violent (measures), swindlers (gang of swindlers), going mad, (was) dealt with, loser, disgusting, bastards, (money) waste, tragedy, tragic (budget), ghostly, hypocrite, infernal mess, slaves, hen (speaker referring to herself).

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The evaluative connotation of the commented-on word can be (a) intensified or (b) weakened by an attributive word:

(a) brazenly shameless procrastination, a classic masterpiece, very impressive, angry mugs, disgusting nationalism, rat squad (about people);

(b) a little crazy.

MK you can't put it any other way also accompanies evaluative idioms, circumlocutions, and sayings expressing (a) a positive or (b) a negative evaluation:

(a) craftspeople with golden hands, Barbie the jack-of-all-trades, a dream team;

(b) theatre of the absurd, digging a pit, beggars in spirit, the height of insolence, a pile of manure, fairyland (ironic), one's own worst enemy, money laundering, political prostitutes (the government), (universal) clouding of reason, mental illness, a feast during famine, having sown bad seed, wonderland (ironic), a nation of suckers, a comedy and a vanity fair; in striving for grand style, he went too far; there is no cure for stupidity.

Foreign, slang, and obscene words and expressions also serve as evaluative terms. Most examples featuring such vocabulary were found online (Google search), for example:

best game, scum, cool (really cool), workaholic woman, stupid, idiot (a ship of idiots, an idiots’ website, a nation of idiots), nice, dumbasses, awesome!, pleasure, well done, malade, bastard, well, unbelievable, drive [someone] off the rails, suka (noun, Russian for “bitch”), super, whore, stupid, assholes, crooks.

The choice of word depends first and foremost on the author’s attitude toward the subject under discussion, education, linguistic expressive abilities, conception of etiquette, language attitudes, intentions, and mood. Examples of language distortion and self-distortion, poor command of language (e.g., there's no other way to describe them than as (=as) simpletons), and sheer illiteracy are most often found online, as we know. The evaluative word is also related to the topic and style of the text.

Finally, it should also be said that, much like a metalinguistic comment, a word akin to a conjunction, namely, can serve to emphasize expression and establish the word used:

These [slippery] stairs are crawled up every day, namely they are crawled by people of all ages RV 1986 02 21.

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CONCLUSIONS

Having discussed the functional-semantic group of metalinguistic comments (MC), through which a speaker or author of a written text indicates that the expression they use is appropriate, or even the most appropriate, in the situation at hand, several generalizations can be made.

1. This group and the MC closely related to it, together with their diversity, make it possible to nuance the expression and strength of the conviction that an appropriate expression has been chosen; cf.: this word is absolutely necessary here / I put it very well / there’s no other way to say it.

2. Comments in the group there’s no other way to say it are used more often postpositionally, after the expression whose appropriateness is being asserted; that is, these comments are usually concluding elements in a metalinguistic unit. From this, one may infer that many of the “optimal” expressions used and accompanied by these comments are not anticipated or thought out in advance (cf. signals of strategy), but are produced in the course of the speech act, often slipping out unexpectedly because of a strong emotional attitude toward the subject being discussed.

3. These comments confirm one of the universals of language: the linguistic expression of negative evaluation occupies a much larger space than that of positive evaluation, and it receives far more attention.

ŠALTINIAI

Dlg – Dialogas (savaitraštis).

<int> – internetas – pavyzdžiai iš paieškos sistemos Google (www.google.lt) lietuvių kalba (žiūrėta 2007 m. gruodžio mėn.).

Ji – Ji (žurnalas).

KB – Kultūros barai (žurnalas).

KT – Komjaunimo tiesa (sovietmečio dienraštis).

LM – Literatūra ir menas (savaitraštis).

LR – Lietuvos rytas (dienraštis).

Marc – Just. Marcinkevičius. Dienoraštis be datų, Vilnius, 1981.

Mt – Metai (žurnalas).

Prg – Pergalė (sovietmečio žurnalas).

Rdj – radijas.

RV – Raudonoji vėliava (sovietmečio Šiaulių miesto dienraštis).

Sauk – D. Sauka. Tautosakos savitumas ir vertė, Vilnius, 1970.

Slav – P. Slavėnas. Saulės sistema, Kaunas, 1946.

Š – Šeimininkė (žurnalas).

šnek. – šnekamoji kalba.

T – Tiesa (sovietmečio dienraštis).

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<t> – Dabartinės lietuvių kalbos tekstynas. Interneto prieiga: http://donelaitis.vdu.lt

TMot – Tarybinė moteris (sovietmečio žurnalas).

TV – televizija.

LITERATŪRA

Jiřičková J. 1979: Metařečový komentář. – Slovo a slovesnost XL (2), 149–151.

Macienė J., Župerka K. 2007: Kalbinės raiškos švelninimo komentarų vartojimas. – Filologija 12, Šiauliai: Šiaulių universiteto leidykla, 55–65.

Mareš P. 1983: Metajazyk, metařeč, metatext. – Slovo a slovesnost XLIV (2), 123–131.

Župerka K. 1995: Raiškos paieškų metakalbiniai komentarai. – Filologija ir metodika 2, Šiauliai: Šiaulių pedagoginis institutas, 102–109.

Župerka K., Inčiūrienė S. 2005: Teigiamas kalbinės raiškos vertinimas nelingvistiniuose tekstuose. – Lietuvių katalikų mokslo akademijos suvažiavimo darbai 19, Vilnius, 505–515.

Gauta 2008 11 03

YOU CANNOT SAY OTHERWISE

(META-LINGUISTIC COMMENTS IN TEXTS)

Summary

In a large variety of meta-linguistic comments there is a distinct functional semantic type of comments where the addressor evaluates his/her expression (a word or a phrase) as important, relevant, most precisely worded and indispensable in the situation. Stereotypical meta-linguistic comments of the type include such phrases as kitaip nepasakysi / nepavadinsi; kitaip kaip (...) nepasakysi / nepavadinsi; kaip kitaip pasakysi / pavadinsi.

The above comments most frequently occur in post-position, i.e. the commentary follows the language item which is treated as optimum, or the most precise. The final, post-positional, comment emphasises the preceding word or phrase; moreover, the comment can be treated as justification for a stronger expression or a slip of the tongue. The most frequent post-position of the comment presumably attests to the fact that the preceding words and phrases are created in a flow of speech and are definitely emotionally coloured; they are not instances of prefabri-

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cated language. In contemporary Lithuanian texts, comments of you cannot say otherwise type are four times less frequent in pre-position. They are usually used to signal a strategy of speaking: the addressee is warned beforehand that a stronger word is likely to be used.

The meta-linguistic comments of the above type are used in the so-called free styles, mainly written publicist texts, in public and private spoken language. The data of ca. 700 meta-linguistic items has shown that comments of the above type are used with expressive evaluative expressions, usually with expressions referring to negative evaluation. In the corpus, the expressions referring to negative evaluation are 10 times more frequent than those referring to positive evaluation.

KAZIMIERAS ŽUPERKA

Šiaulių universitetas

P. Višinskio g. 38, LT-76352 Šiauliai

[email protected]

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