The image of language and metalinguistic commentary in multicultural literature

The article studies the image of the English language in fiction novels by multicultural writers, i.e. by authors who focus in their English-language novels on cultural and social differences between the dominant community and the minorities. The literary image of a language represents "signified" and "signifier", and is viewed as a result of the metalinguistic competence of an author. Verbally, it is expressed by means of the metalinguistic commentary, which is defined as a verbalized product of conscious reflection over the language code. The language serves simultaneously as a means and as an object of the author's reflection. Multicultural writers perceive one language from the perspective of another language, culture or tradition, presenting the image of the "self" against the backdrop of the culture of the "other". When constructing the literary image of the language or a character's speech, metalinguistic commentary fulfils the functions of various linguistic markers, such as the marker of status, social class, education level, and the marker of identity. The aim of the article is to research metalinguistic commentary in multicultural literature in order to reveal the representation of the "self" and the "other". The process of globalisation and the growing interest in the way social and cultural differences are reflected in a language as well as lack of linguistic and cultural research of a language as a literary image in multicultural literature make the article especially topical and relevant. The study is based on the analysis of 12 multicultural novels. The underlying methods of the research are: the method of continuous sampling; the method of observation of linguistic phenomena, which includes selection and systematisation of factual material; interpretative and descriptive methods; elements of contextual and stylistic analysis. As the research shows, the linguistic markers mentioned above build up the "self-other" dichotomy, which is considered fundamental in multicultural literature. The article analyses 82 samples of metalinguistic commentary, i.e. interpretative remarks concerning the image of the English language/speech and culture. Metalinguistic commentary in multicultural literature is viewed as part and parcel of comprehension of the self and identity, which manifests itself at the phonemic, lexemic, syntactic levels, as well as at the level of super-phrasal unity by means of foregrounding. The results of the study contribute to a deeper exploration of the issues of social identification in multicultural literature.