The Ghanaian linguistics nexus

Christopher R. Green; Samson Lotven; Kenneth de Jong; Seth Ofori; Matthew Ajibade; Kofi Agyekum; Esther  Desiadenyo Manu-Barfo; Ronald Schaefer; Francis  Egbokhare; Victor Temitope Alabi; Taiwo Ehineni; Paul Newman; Abbie Hantgan; Leonardo Contreras Roa; Beatrice Ng’uono Okelo; Katrina Smith

Forthcoming: The Ghanaian linguistics nexus

Christopher R. Green Samson Lotven

Synopsis

There is a long and rich tradition of excellence in Ghanaian linguistics and the detailed study of Ghanaian languages. This tradition has expanded by leaps and bounds in recent years, thanks in part to a cadre of renowned and highly productive Ghanaian linguists conducting research at universities around the globe, as well as in Ghana itself. So too has the commitment to careful description, documentation, and theorizing underlying this tradition been extended to the students that these scholars have trained. The papers in this volume reflect the vast reach of this research tradition, grounded in but expanding beyond Ghanaian languages, ranging from experimental phonetics, to language description, to political discourse analysis.

Chapters

Introduction

Christopher R. Green, Samson Lotven
From co-occurrence patterns to rhythmic alignment
Ongoing investigations of Twi consonants and vowels

Kenneth de Jong
Glide-onset formation between vowels in Akan

Seth Ofori
Morphology in Gengbe and Yoruba ideophones

Samson Lotven, Matthew Ajibade
Ethnopragmatics of Akan plant metaphor

Kofi Agyekum
The socio-pragmatics of routine expressions in Dompo

Esther Desiadenyo Manu-Barfo
Argument linkage for Niger Congo ‘give’

Ronald Schaefer, Francis Egbokhare
Intertextuality in discourse
Chief Obasanjo’s open letter to Dr. Jonathan

Victor Temitope Alabi
Names as communicative acts
A study of Yoruba names

Taiwo Ehineni
Linguistic “oddities” explained

Paul Newman
Coerced weight and its consequences in Bondu So verbs

Abbie Hantgan, Christopher R. Green, Leonardo Contreras Roa
Morphophonology of Dholuo noun pluralization

Beatrice Ng’uono Okelo
Poised to pivot
Kenyan Maay’s restricted tone system

Christopher R. Green, Katrina Smith

Biographies

Christopher R. Green, Syracuse University

Christopher R. Green is Associate Professor of Linguistics at Syracuse University. He is a phonologist whose research focuses primarily on prosody, including metrical structure, tone, and prominence, broadly construed. He has conducted fieldwork in Mali and Kenya, as well as within diaspora populations of African language speakers in the US and Europe. He has written a reference grammar of Somali, Somali Grammar (2021), and is part of a team of linguists documenting and exploring the phonology-syntax interface in the Luyia languages of Western Kenya. His current project is aimed at uncovering details of the Jarawan languages of Nigeria, which are almost entirely undescribed.

Samson Lotven, Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, Indiana University

Samson Lotven is Senior Associate Director of Student Success and Affiliate Faculty in African Studies at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is a field linguist who values collaborative research, mentorship, and community building in language work. His research on West African and Southeast Asian languages centers around the tone, morphology, and diachronic phonology.

Published

October 25, 2023

LaTeX source on GitHub

Series

Contemporary African Linguistics

Cite as

Green, Christopher R. & Lotven, Samson (eds.). Forthcoming. The Ghanaian linguistics nexus. (Contemporary African Linguistics). Berlin: Language Science Press.

Copyright (c) 2023 Samson Lotven, Christopher R. Green; Kenneth de Jong, Seth Ofori, Matthew Ajibade, Kofi Agyekum, Esther Desiadenyo Manu-Barfo, Ronald Schäfer, Francis Egbohare, Victor Temitope Alabi, Taiwo Ehiheni, Paul Newman, Abbie Hantgan, Leonardo Contreras Roa, Beatrice Ng’uono Okelo, Katrina Smith