languageness

English

Etymology

From language +‎ -ness.

Noun

languageness (uncountable)

1. The quality of being a language.
   • 1970 August 20, Benjamin Boretz, “Nelson Goodman's Languages of Art from a Musical Point of View”, in The Journal of Philosophy, volume LXVII, number 16, New York, N.Y.: The Journal of Philosophy, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 552:

     The issue of the languageness of the languages of art clears, moreover, if we turn from the aboutness of language to the special entityness of verbal-linguistic things, which, like art things, are entities just by virtue of being inferred as such from aspects of concreta filtered through a syntax and a semantics.

   • 2018, James Costa, “On the Pros and Cons of Standardizing Scots: Notes From the North of a Small Island”, in Pia Lane, James Costa, Haley De Korne, editors, Standardizing Minority Languages: Competing Ideologies of Authority and Authenticity in the Global Periphery, Routledge, →ISBN, page 53:

     Much has been written about Synthetic Scots (e.g., McClure 1990; Purves 1997; Hart 2010), which was in effect an attempt at standardizing the vernacular in order to confer attributes of languageness upon it and make it appropriate for literary usage.

   • 2018, Peter Kuras, transl., The Secret Language of Cats: How to Understand Your Cat for a Better, Happier Relationship, HQ, →ISBN, page 45:

     The most recent research suggests that many animal species do have a kind of "languageness" that is not exactly like human language, but which is not necessarily simpler or less successful as a communicative code.

Usage notes

• Primarily used as a nonce word.