The Ghanaian linguistics nexus

Christopher R. Green (ed), Samson Lotven (ed)

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

Statistics

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.

Book cover

Published

May 31, 2024
LaTeX source on GitHub

Print ISSN

2511-7726
Cite as
Green, Christopher R. & Lotven, Samson (eds.). 2024. The Ghanaian linguistics nexus. (Contemporary African Linguistics 9). Berlin: Language Science Press. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10949012

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Details about the available publication format: PDF

PDF

ISBN-13 (15)

978-3-96110-469-7

doi

10.5281/zenodo.10949012

Details about the available publication format: Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN-13 (15)

978-3-98554-098-3

Physical Dimensions

180mm x 245mm