Construction
- meta- means providing information about, or transcending,
- syntax denotes the grammatical arrangement of words or the grammatical rules of a programming language, and
- a variable is something that can assume a value, or something likely to vary.
So metasyntactic variable denotes a word that "transcends grammar and can assume a value" or one that is "more comprehensive than suggested by its grammatical arrangement and is likely to vary". It may also denote a word that provides information about the grammatical arrangement of words by being able to assume a value that is expected to vary.
Read more about this topic: Corge
Famous quotes containing the word construction:
“There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face:
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“There is, I think, no point in the philosophy of progressive education which is sounder than its emphasis upon the importance of the participation of the learner in the formation of the purposes which direct his activities in the learning process, just as there is no defect in traditional education greater than its failure to secure the active cooperation of the pupil in construction of the purposes involved in his studying.”
—John Dewey (1859–1952)
“There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)