Volume: 29  Number: 4  Page: 325–340  doi:10.2167/jmmd570.0

Necessary Versus Sufficient Conditions for Using New Languages in South African Higher Education: A Linguistic Appraisal

Rajend Mesthrie Linguistics Section, Department of English, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa

This paper critically examines one particular issue against the background of changes in South Africa's higher education system consequent upon the advent of a non-racial democracy – the possibility of implementing multilingual instructional polices that include indigenous African languages in its universities. Currently, a great deal of applied linguistic work is being carried out on the creation of word lists and dictionaries, via translation and term creation. This paper concurs that this is a necessary step in language adaptation for the task envisaged. It uses Saussurian semantics to show that translation and/or creation of terms is not a relatively transparent activity. An examination of Saussure's notion of ‘semantic value’ leads to a post-structuralist concern with use and function. This orientation to language is considered further in light of the discourse-oriented work of M.A.K. Halliday and J.R. Martin on the language of science in Writing Science, Literacy and Discursive Power, published by Falmer Press in 1993. Such discourse unfolds within a community of practice. The practices required for a translated science involve semiotic inculcation, and can be compared to the efforts of 19th-century Christian missionaries who worked on expanding Xhosa for religious purposes. These efforts show the complexities of developing Xhosa as a possible language of science, which any language planner will have to face.

Keywords: higher education, missionaries and language, multilingualism, scientific register, semantics, translation

© 2008 R. Mesthrie

Access this article