Intl. Inform. & Libr. Rev (2001), 33, 261^274doi:10.1006/iilr.2001.0173Available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on

The Literate ‘‘Illiterates’’ of the NorthernCape Province of South AfricaöanEmpirical AccountHAMILTON WILLIAMS*

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the concept ‘‘literacy’’ from an Africanperspective, with particular reference to the Xhosa culture.The community of Nonzwakazi Township of De Aar in theNorthern Cape Province of South Africa is taken as a casestudy. Thc conventional Western de¢nitions of literacy aredebated within the African constructs. Three themes are ex-plored in the paper, namely: (i) The impact of past Apart-heid laws on literacy levels in the area, with specialreference to the Bantu Education Act of 1953, (ii) The de¢-nition of the concept of African traditional literacy, com-pared to the Western de¢nitions and (iii) An inter-disciplinary de¢nition of literacy using Strauss’ 15 Aspectsof Life as a guideline.

# 2001 Academic Press

‘‘Teach the children that Africans are not one iota inferior to Europeans. Establishyour own community schools where the right kind of education will be given to ourchildren. If it becomes dangerous or impossible to have alternative schools, thenyou must make every home, every shack, every ricketry structure a centre of learn-ing for our children. Never surrender to the inhuman and barbaric theories of Ver-woerd.’’ Nelson Mandela, speech at annual conference of Transvaal Teachers’Association, 1953.1

INTRODUCTION

This paper is about the illiterate indigenous people the De Aar-region ofthe Northern Cape Province of South Africa, namely the Xhosa people.

*School of Media and Information, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia.1Meer & Fatima (1988) Higher than hope: the authorised biography of Nelson Mandela. Johannesburg:

Skotaville.

1057^2317/01/020261 + 14 $35.00/0 # 2001 Academic Press

262 H.WILLIAMS

De Aar is the capital town of the Upper Karoo Region of the NorthernCape. The paper is empirical in nature and describes experiences andhappenings around illiteracy and literacy training in the NonzwakaziTownship of De Aar in the Northern Cape.This paper and my Masters research as a whole is embedded in my

life experience of growing up as a literate child in a household of illiter-ate adults. This is not an unusual phenomenon in the African settingand the literate child is always regarded as hope for the family. The con-ventional Western de¢nitions of literacy are challenged within the con-text of the power structures of the Nonzwakazi township in De Aar. Inthis paper I will show that we cannot equate an African illiterate with aWestern illiterate.

TOWARDS AN AFRICAN DEFINITION OF LITERACY

Harman2 makes a comment in this regard by stating that the attempt tode¢ne literacy is like a walk to the horizon: as one walks towards it, itcontinuously recedes. Malale3 states that the di¡erent views on literacyindicate that there is no single meaning of literacy. As indicated, de¢ni-tions are altered by circumstances, and new ones replace old de¢nitions.‘‘The demands of the society may also necessitate that an individualshould not only be able to read and write, but also use these skills inaid of his/her own development as well as community development.’’4

Literacy (or illiteracy) de¢nitely di¡ers from background to back-ground and from context to context. It will serve no purpose to try toand use the same criteria to determine levels of illiteracy amongst peo-ple from di¡erent nationalities or socio-economic settings. The meaningof literacy also depends upon the needs of illiterate people in the societyin which they ¢nd themselves. The motives behind becoming literateshould be the driving force in the de¢nition of literacy. For example, ifa person wants to be able to write a short letter to his/her son, thenilliteracy for that particular person should be de¢ned as a descriptionof the person’s state of inability to write.The above clearly shows that a radical change in mindset should take

place in the way we de¢ne literacy. What is important to remember isthat we should guard against conceptualizing issues from di¡erent back-grounds using the same paradigm framework. Literacy (or illiteracy)is relative from context to context and from situation to situation. For

2Harman & David (1987) Illiteracy: a national dilemma. NewYork: Cambridge.3Malale, M.M. (1996) Gender and literacy education in a rural area of Mpumalanga. Pretoria: Univer-

sity of South Africa.4 Ibid.

THE LITERATE ‘‘ILLITERATES’’ OF THE NORTHERN CAPE PROVINCE 263

example, an illiterate person from a developed country cannot be trea-ted in the same way as one coming from a Third World background.Where resources were readily available to the developed world, theThirdWorld is struggling to keep up with demands for basic needs fromcitizens. Really, being literate becomes a luxury in a situation of scarceresources.The American Federal National Literacy Act of 19915 de¢nes literacy

as having an ability to read, write, speak English, compute, and solveproblems to achieve and function in a job and in society. This de¢nitionrefers to competencies a person should have if he/she wants to call him-self literate. Now, we cannot apply this de¢nition in Africa since Afri-cans do not have English as their vernacular and de¢nitely do nothave computers in the rural villages where you can actually test yourskill and explore the world from the comfort of a machine using binarycodes as basis for calculation. In the second report of the InternationalAdult Literacy Survey, which incidentally covered most of the developedcountries like Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and Sweden,literacy is referred to as a ‘‘particular skill’’ namely to understand anduse printed information in day-to-day activities, at home, at work andin the community. This de¢nition clearly indicates that it has been ap-proached from a purelyWestern angle where the written word still formthe basis for legitimizing whatever human action that has taken place.Clearly the above de¢nitions cannot be used to describe the situation ofa Xhosa person who cannot read or write.The term literacy has always been used to denote a certain ability or

inability. For example, a person who cannot use a computer will be re-ferred to as being computer illiterate, or a person who cannot use moneyproperly will be referred to as economically illiterate, but what kind of‘‘illiteracy’’ is it not to be able to read or write? This means that theterm illiteracy can be seen as being relative to a certain situation. So, ifyou ¢nd yourself in the situation of not being able to use a computer, theincompetency is called computer illiteracy.

THE AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY IN LITERACY:

THE XHOSA TRADITION

The Xhosa tradition is based upon human values where the human lifeis de¢ned by the mystery surrounding life. The Xhosa believe in a Crea-tor who is in control of his creation.6 There are di¡erent names assigned

5 Amstutz, D.D. & Sheared, V. (2000) The crisis in adult basic education. Education&UrbanSociety, 32, p. 155.

6 Strauss, D. (1998) Being human in God’s world, Bloemfontein: Tekshor.

264 H.WILLIAMS

to this Creator, but the principle of a creator in control of the solar sys-tem, the seasons and the climate has always been the basis of the XhosaParadigm. Although the people are highly Westernized and are follow-ing the Christian tradition, time is set aside for traditional rites and ri-tuals. Rituals are carried out as tools for communication with those whohave passed on to the Supernatural.The ethnic tribes have di¡erent ways of carrying out the same ritual.

For the ritual to be accepted by the ancestors, a designated ‘‘leader’’should conduct the ceremony. You have to be the head of the householdand if you do not know how to carry out the rituals according to thespeci¢cs of your own tribe, you will be stripped of your rights. If it sohappens that the father of a certain family has passed away, the eldestson will have to be the one to conduct the ceremonies. The older menare completely unable to read or write, but are highly literate in thetraditional rituals. The older people know nothing about pen and paper,but possess incredible memory.You are required to be highly knowledge-able to be able to carry out such rituals. The ability to think criticallyand give informed traditional decisions are some of the characteristicsan elder must manifest before being granted permission to conduct cer-emonies within his tribe.In the Xhosa tradition, knowledge is passed on by word of mouth.

What has been said by a particular chief in the ancient Xhosa times willbe passed on by word of mouth from generation to generation. TheXhosa pride themselves in the geneology of their respective tribes. Infact, when an elder is about to address people at a traditional ceremony,it is usual practice that he ¢rst identify himself by tracing his roots. Heis limited to what he has been told by word of mouth by his father orgrandfather (as would sometimes the case be, since the question of in-formal adoption of the ¢rst grandchild is a general phenomenon in theXhosa culture). The question of mutual trust is also plays a major rolesince inter-ethnic contracts are done by word of mouth. For example, averbal agreement is reached when a young man wants to marry a younglady. The amount to be paid as a token of appreciation of the younglady (Lobola) is agreed upon verbally and the particular party wouldthen verbally undertake to pay the ‘‘Lobola’’ as requested by the lady’sfather and uncles. A person who has a deep-rooted knowledge of ritualsand rites around the marriage ritual will be asked to represent theyoung man. There is no requirement for the delegate to be able to reador write, only that he should possess excellent negotiation skills (a goodorator).While the West believes in writing things down on graphic material

for posterity, the oral tradition in Africa is still an important tool forknowledge transfer. In Africa, we still practice mutual trust and accept

THE LITERATE ‘‘ILLITERATES’’ OF THE NORTHERN CAPE PROVINCE 265

a person’s word for it. In the West, you have to keep hard copies ofany conversation so that you can refer to it in future, because you can-not completely trust anyone. Traditional knowledge is transferred byword of mouth around a ¢re the night before the ceremonies are con-ducted and sometimes a son will be taken as an assistant to the fatherand so have hands-on experience on these matters. The Xhosa also usesymbolism as a tool for communication. For example, a certain colourrobe in a traditional ceremony symbolizes a particular ritual to becarried out.

LITERACY vs RELIGION

Christianity has always been associated with literacy in the past. Forexample, the missionaries that went about establishing missionaryschools in the Eastern Cape used the scriptures to teach the children toread and write. Missionaries continued to make a signi¢cant contribu-tion to the formal education of Africans until the mid 20th century. Thismeant that preachers and ministers of religion were associated withvery high levels of literacy, but this is contradicted by the situation ofNonzwakazi Township in De Aar.It is usual practice for an elder to ask his/her son to read to him a

passage from the Bible. They will then memorize the verse and pretendto be reading from the Bible in the pulpit. Should he/she commit a mis-take, his/her weak eyes always get the blame for his/her poor reading.Whilst reciting what has been read to him/her an hour or two ago, anobservant member of the congregation can actually pick up thathe/she is not reading, by simply listening to the monotonous tone in thevoice. Sometimes the Bible verses referred to support the topic on whichhe/she is preaching are totally out of context.The usual practice is that a preacher can be asked to lead the church

service 10 minutes before the service. They ¢nd no di⁄culty in produ-cing a very e¡ective sermon. They preach the Word, quoting accuratelyfrom the Bible. They never read the verses they quote, but rely comple-tely on memory. With due respect, the lay preachers sometimes explainthe Bible better than ordained ministers. This can be ascribed to thefact that the Scriptures are contextualized to the culture of the commu-nity and they can then relate to the passage. The clergy base their ser-mons solely on the Theology they studied at the seminary which couldsometimes be confusing for a person who has never attended school. It isvery hard to ignore the vast Bible knowledge these preachers possess,and that sometimes only from what they have heard from somebodyelse.

266 H.WILLIAMS

THE LEGACY OF THE BANTU EDUCATION ACT OF 1953

On 9th May 2000, the Parliamentary Working Group on Equity inEducation released the following statistics on the levels in South Africawhen it tabled its report to the South African Parliament. The workingcommittee’s purpose was to determine to what the impact of past Apart-heid laws was on education in general in South Africa.

TABLE I

Education distribution among South Africa’s main racial groups

African Coloured Indian White Total

No Education 2 640 000 182 000 34 000 8000 2 864 000Some Primary 4 495 000 690 000 84 000 35 000 5 304 000Some Secondary 7 413 000 1 001 000 448 000 2 632 000 11 494 000Some Tertiary 822 000 102 000 74 000 952 000 1 950 000TOTAL 15 370 000 1 975 000 640 000 3 627 000 21 612 000

Source: S.A. Education Department (CSS October Household Survey: 1995).

The ¢gures are not at all surprising. Black Africans make up 92% ofadults who have no formal education at allöthat in relation to the0�2% Whites. The situation in South Africa is unique in the sense thatwe are dealing here with ‘‘forced illiteracy’’ and this was brought aboutby the notorius Bantu Education Act of 1953. The word ‘‘Bantu’’ is de-rived from the Nguni word ‘‘Abantu’’, meaning ‘‘the people’’. The Nation-alist government used the term to refer to all Blacks in South Africawho were neither coloured (mixed-race) or Asian in origin. This termwould later become the source for fury and a signpost of oppression tothe Black masses of South Africa.Dr H.F. Verwoerd, Minister for Native A¡airs who would later be-

come Prime Minister, captured the logic of this act as training Africansto be ‘‘drawers of waters and hewers of wood’’ (Sowetu Students Repre-sentative Council, 1976).7 Verwoerd never made a secret of what hethought of Black people. During his introduction of the policy in 1953he made the following statement: ‘‘When I have control over native edu-cation, I will reform it so that natives will be taught from childhoodthat equality is not for them’’.8 In 1955 he reiterated the fact that ‘‘there

7 Christie, P. (1988) The right to learn: the-struggle for education in South Africa. Johannesburg:SACHED Trust/Ravan Press.

8 Verwoerd, H.F. (1953) Speech on introduction of Bantu Education Act of 1953. S.A. ParliamentHansard Reports, 1953.

THE LITERATE ‘‘ILLITERATES’’ OF THE NORTHERN CAPE PROVINCE 267

is no place for the Bantu in the European community above the level ofcertain forms of labour’’.9 Although the real purpose of this Act was toachieve a de¢nite lowering of overall educational standards by con¢ningthe Black child to the limits of his tribal outlook, on the other hand afast-growing market was created, almost overnight for vernacular lit-erary productionsöa decisive change indeed, from the days in 1942when an educational authority could observe that ‘‘the stimulation of Na-tive authors has now come to the position when more material is beingo¡ered than the market can assimilate.’’ The legacy of this policy hasshaped the literacy levels of Africans in Post^Apartheid South Africa.

LITERACY TRAINING PRACTICES IN THE DE AAR-REGION

In the academic year 2000, 1319 students are registered in the adulteducation classes in the De Aar Region. The breakdown of numbers isas follows:

TABLE II

Model aspects of reality and their nuclei

Level Number

One 522Two 368Three 300

Four 129Total 1319

Source: De Aar Regional Education Department,Northern Cape Province of South Africa.

Following is an explanation of the di¡erent levels of adult basic edu-cation(ABET).

Level 1: People with less than one year of schooling, including thosewho have never been to school. It includes learning to readand write in the person’s own language as well as anintroduction to numeracy skills.

Level 2: People with between one and four years of schooling.

9 Verwoerd, H.F. (1955) Speech to Parliament. S.A. Parliament Hansard Reports, 1955.

268 H.WILLIAMS

Level 3: People with between four and ¢ve years of schooling whodid not receive adequate basic education with the formalschooling system but who are technically literate in theirown language and have a basic knowledge of English.

Level 4: People who attended between ¢ve and seven years of formalschooling. On completion of this level people should be ableto join a grade 10 class in the formal education system.

The numbers above indicate those enrolled in a formal literacy pro-gram. Classrooms are utilized for the adult literacy classes and theseclasses are usually referred to as ‘‘night school’’. Volunteers from the com-munity run these classes and they are only paid for their travelling ex-penses. A single class consist of about 35 students and these studentssometimes have to travel long distances to be able to attend these classes.The problems facing the students are those of workload, having to run ahousehold and sometimes health problems. The main motivation behindattending these classes is for their ¢nancial gain, because the student canbe o¡ered a job as a messenger at completion of the programme. Some ofthem are promised a small incentive like a salary raise upon completion.A major problem experienced by students is that of being looked

down upon. The adult literacy classes are dismissed by some as purelya waste of time. The classes are sometimes seen as places for gatheringwhere people can interact socially. The reality strikes the critics at thebank where the neo-literate friend no longer makes a cross on the dottedline, but prints his/her name in full. Although illiterate, the Xhosa el-ders have magni¢cent identi¢cation skills. They are obviously unable tocount or identify a set of digits on a banknote and so identify notes bycolour. This poses a problem since governments always feel the need tochange notes after a period of about 10 to 15 years so that people cannotfake banknotes. The elders then have to take time to get accustomed tothe new colour codes and in the process go through processes of abuseand cheating. The joy really comes when the neo-literate can (for him/herself) read a letter from a son or daughter working in Johannesburg.To be able to read from the Bible, even if it takes several minutes tocomplete a few verses, is greatly cherished and is usually equated witha blessing from God.Support structures are available to illiterate people and this is

made possible through cultural norms where the youth must supportelders as far as possible. It is no shame for an elder to call a young per-son passing by to come and read a letter to him/her. After all, the youthis sent to school to be able to carry out such tasks. At the moment, being£uent in English is equated to the acquistion of a very high level ofeducation.

THE LITERATE ‘‘ILLITERATES’’ OF THE NORTHERN CAPE PROVINCE 269

AN INTER-DISCIPLINARY DEFINITION OF LITERACY

What we are looking at developing is an inter-disciplinary and inter-cul-tural de¢nition of the term ‘‘literacy’’. Before we can embark on such a‘‘mission’’, it is important for us to determine exactly where literacy ¢tsin the aspects of life. It is important to determine exactly in which ofthese aspects the concept of literacy (or illiteracy) is quali¢ed.10

Following is a model through which I will develop this inter-disciplin-ary de¢nition of literacy.

TABLE III

Simpli¢ed version of Strauss’Aspect of reality and their nuclei

Aspects of reality Nuclear meaning of aspects Entities

Certitudinal/Faith Certainty HEthical Love UJuridicial Fairness MAesthetic Beautiful Harmony AEconomic Frugality NSocial Social Intercourse SSign/Lingual Symbolical Signi¢cationCultural^historical Formative Control/powerLogical Analysis

Sensitive Feeling AnimalsBiotical Life P

LANTS

Physical Energy-operation MKinematical Uniform Flow/Constancy ASpace Continuous Extension TNumber Discrete Quantity T

ER

15 Aspects of life and their nuclei.11

An explanation of the 15 Aspects of Life follows at the end of thispaper as an addendum. Please refer to it for more detail.The Underlying aspects in literacy are those of identi¢cation of what

has been denoted and assigning a symbol to what has been identi¢ed. Inother words, a de¢nition of literacy should really be one which will refer

10 Strauss (1998) Op. cit.11Strauss (1998) Op. cit.

270 H.WILLIAMS

to a person’s capability to be able to identify the entity or phenomenonin question against a set of ideas already installed in the person’s mind.This set of ideas is developed as the person matures and is heavily in£u-enced by environmental factors like culture and religion. The completeset of ideas is then referred to as a person’s paradigm framework or life-and-world-view.12 This Life-and-world-view orientates the person in his/her environment. One can therefore only identify entities or phenomenaagainst this background. Alasuutari13 actually makes mention of the factthat everything we know and everything we believe about the world isbased on observations and inferences drawn from those observations.This brings me to the point where everything in the modern world isalways determined against a Western Background or paradigm frame-work. Most of the researchers in literacy training committed the grossmistake of trying to equate the locals (especially in Africa and Asia)with Western practices and conveniently dismiss any practice contraryto the West’s as uncivilised or to use the worst word, barbaric. We haveto be sensitive to other people’s cultures and life styles. Yussen14 actuallywarns us that literacy and literacy learning are embedded in cultureönot superimposed on it. It is true that the West has developed systemswhich could make life easier for mankind, but such systems actually donot have any e¡ect on some communities in the world. For example, afarm labourer in the De Aar district could not be bothered about whatis happening around him/her technologically, and will certainly not ¢nda need to try to go for computer courses. The only concern to him/her isto have food on the table everyday, even if it means hard labour from3 am to 9 pm. The case would be di¡erent for the local businessman,because new computer packages might appear on the market whichcould make the accounting process a lot easier.Literacy could therefore be quali¢ed under the cultural^historical as-

pect of the lingual aspect of life (an analogy of the lingual aspect). Itmeans that literacy is really the power or ability to assign symbols toentities or phenomena we become aware of. By assigning these symbolswe are actually ‘‘marking’’ what we become aware of with ‘‘1abels’’ so asto identify the ‘‘label’’ and establish whether there are any similarities tothe ‘‘1abel’’ we have in front of us. The ability to draw conclusions andact upon what we have been informed about is called knowledge.Knowledge is a situation that can prevail only when a person can makea decision based upon what he/she has been informed about. If you do

12 Fourie, H.S. (1998) An introduction and orientation to the philosophy of science (unpublished). PortElizabeth: Port ElizabethTechnikon.13 Alasuutari, P. (1998) An invitation to social research. London: Sage.14 Yussen & Steven (1993) Reading across the life span. NewYork: Springer-Verlag.

THE LITERATE ‘‘ILLITERATES’’ OF THE NORTHERN CAPE PROVINCE 271

not have the bits and pieces (data) organized in a signi¢cant mannerwithin a certain context (information), it is impossible to make a deci-sion based upon what you have been informed about (knowledge out-put). Literacy is therefore one’s ability to utilize knowledge ability tosolve a particular problem in a particular situation or to make informeddecisions based upon the information conveyed to you at an earlier stage(expertise).15 Note that this de¢nition does not refer to any ¢eld or sub-ject, and de¢nitely not to reading or writing.The term ‘‘illiterate’’ on its own describes an inability the particular

person has, and does not by any means refer to the processes of readingand writing.We therefore have to try and determine what kind of inabil-ity it is not to be able to read or write. Reading and writing has to dowith the lingual aspect of life.When you write, you are using the knownconventional codes of a particular language and wish that the readerwill be able to identify those codes using the same context you used. Ifthe reader can assimilate the text and ¢nd matches in his/her set ofideas we say that he/she understands. The context referred to here is de-¢nitely the language where the ‘‘rules’’ are set for the process of decod-ing. The reader ¢rst has to understand in which language the text iswritten and he/she will then be able to decode the message as the enco-der would have wished to. It is also the responsibility of the writer/en-coder to deliberately lead the reader to understand in which languagehe/she should go about decoding the text. Apart from this, small muscledevelopment is of utmost importance if the writer wants to put acrossthe codes in a clear and precise manner. This comes with practice (andit is unfortunate that some of us still cannot manipulate the ¢ngers’small muscles properly). The people we refer to as being illiterate cannotdo what I have mentioned earlier on in this paragraph.The term ‘‘lingual illiteracy’’ would be the best to describe a person

who cannot read or write. This de¢nition does not refer to an inabilityto communicate in a given language. For example, if a person cannotspeak English, he/she can be referred to as being Anglo illiterate. A per-son who cannot communicate (read and write) in the English language,can be referred to as being Anglo lingual illiterate. This kind of illiteracyrefer to the inability to perform certain functions concerned with a par-ticular language, namely to use the tools for communication in this par-ticular language.What is really important to understand in literacy research is that the

so-called illiterate person is part of a community and is heavily in£u-enced by the culture of that particular community. The situation of

15 Fourie, H.S. (1992) The management of information as a resource in an Organisation: a fundamentalmodel (unpublished). Pretoria: University of South Africa.

272 H.WILLIAMS

being lingually illiterate is not as important as the motive of becominglingually literate.

APPENDIX

An explanation of the 15 Aspects of life16

Aspect of reality Meaning nucleus

15. Pistical aspect Faith and certainty14. Ethical aspect Moral love13. Juridicial aspect Adjudication12. Aesthetic aspect Harmony11. Economic aspect Exclusion of excess (balance)10. Social aspect Social intercourse9. Lingual aspect Symbolic Meaning (signify)8. Historical aspect Controlled formative power (cultural)7. Logical aspect Analytical thought

6. Psychical aspect Sensory feeling5. Biotic aspect Life4. Physical aspect Energy3. Kinematic aspect Motion2. Spatial aspect Continous extension1. Numerical aspect Discrete quantity

The ¢rst six aspects are NATURAL aspects and the aspects 7^15 are CULTURAL.

Order of the aspectsThe order of these aspects is also a cosmical principle and are in se-quence according to the principle of complexity. Number is the leastcomplex of all aspects. Lets take an example: ‘‘number’’ could be thoughtof without any other aspect like space for instance, but ‘‘space’’ can neverbe thought of without including (knowingly or unknowingly) terms ofthe number aspect, for example: 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional space.‘‘Movement’’ again needs space to move in. A‘‘physical’’ entity exist frommoving particles (atoms, molecules and so on) in space which could beindicated in numerical terms.A ‘‘biotical’’ (living) thing needs a physical structure. ‘‘Psychical’’ sen-

sitivity pre-supposes life whereas logical thought rests on the basis ofpsychical sensitivity. ‘‘Historical’’ development is impossible without theability to distinguish.‘‘Language and symbols’’ with meaning are formed

16 Fourie (1998) Op. cit.

THE LITERATE ‘‘ILLITERATES’’ OF THE NORTHERN CAPE PROVINCE 273

(historically). ‘‘Social’’ intercourse implies lingual understanding. ‘‘Eco-nomics’’ without social contact is impossible whereas beauty can onlybe evaluated with a concept of ‘‘value’’ (economic).The ‘‘juridicial’’ strive towards a harmony (aesthethical) of di¡erent

rights. The question of what is ‘‘ethical’’ and what is not dependsamongst other things on a concept of ‘‘right’’ and ‘‘wrong’’ (juridicial).‘‘Faith’’ depends on love (ethical). (Would you trust someone who hatesyou?).

Analogical momentsTo illustrate ante- and retrocipation let us choose one aspect and analyseit in all its moments: Lingual (with the meaning nucleus symbolicmeaning or signify)In its retrocipation to the numerical aspect, one could identify a

meaningful moment of unity of signi¢cance (which could be distin-guished from units of faith for instance or unity of love), a word.Furthermore, the spatial aspect could be seen in the moment of lin-gual-space, for example range or ¢eld of meaning.Lingual movementöthe fact that meaning could change.Lingual power di¡ers from physical power or economic power and

points to the signi¢cance. Certain languages are better equipped to il-lustrate certain concepts.In the biotical aspect, lingual growth could be identi¢ed. The fact

that meaning could enlarge so that a need for new words arises, impliesgrowth. Words could acquire a certain ‘‘meaning’’ even emotion whichbrings us to the psychical aspect (lingual sensitivity).The logical moment of the lingual aspect is illustrated by the fact that

we all understand a language without it being logical. For example, thequestion to someone: ‘‘Are you here already?’’ (What is that person sup-posed to answer? ‘‘No, I am actually still at the gate’’). Nevertheless, weall use it and understand it correctly.The historical moment of power is illustrated by the fact that some

people has a greater power of expression, they use a rich languagewhereas others are shallow and have to use swear words to emphasizepower.Lingual intercourse is illustrated by a dialogue. Without it, one can-

not communicate. Communication is actually lingual intercourse, eitherimmediately or by means of print through ages.The economic moment could be illustrated by the fact that one could

be ‘‘short and sweet’’ or ‘‘quite lengthy’’ in explanations, discussions andgeneral talking. Some languages are just shorter or more economic withterms than others. (For example, in Afrikaans you have ‘‘trok’’ or ‘‘wa’’against the English equivalent of ‘‘carriage’’, ‘‘coach’’ or ‘‘wagon’’.)

274 H.WILLIAMS

Lingual harmony in the aesthetical anticipation of the lingual aspectis Illustrated in the beautiful use of language or even the beauty of lan-guage itself (Poetry).The juridicial aspect in£uence can, amongst other things, be illu-

strated in the fact that language could be used legitimately or illegiti-mately. It is ‘‘wrong’’ to say ‘‘I are’’, one says ‘‘I am’’. (Even when adialect develops it conforms to certain ‘‘rules’’.)Love for a language or an expression indicates ethical analogy of the

lingual aspect. Lingual trust or certainty is implied in our day-to-dayuse of language, for example: ‘‘I am fairly certain that you understandwhat I am saying.’’ ‘‘I trust you hear me well.’’