- I am a Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at the University of the West of England, where I am also a membe... moreI am a Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at the University of the West of England, where I am also a member of the Bristol Centre for Linguistics. I am an interdisciplinary scholar who investigates how people deploy language in specific spatiotemporal and sociocultural contexts to achieve various aims, including identity construction and negotiation, self-promotion and othering as well as argumentation, resistance and (de)legitimation.edit
In recent years, LGBT issues have received substantial media attention and engendered heated public debate in Ghana. This paper analyzes the prejudiced construction of LGBT issues in the Ghanaian news media and how this contributes to a... more
In recent years, LGBT issues have received substantial media attention and engendered heated public debate in Ghana. This paper analyzes the prejudiced construction of LGBT issues in the Ghanaian news media and how this contributes to a discriminatory discourse that demeans LGBT people and puts them at the periphery of Ghanaian society. The study employs a critical discourse analysis framework and a dataset of 385 articles, comprising news reports, op-ed pieces, and editorials. The analysis reveals that news content on LGBT issues is biased and inflammatory, and it frames LGBT people as expendables and undesirables. This is realized by exploiting three discourses, or forms of othering, that culminate into the (re)production and naturalization of moral panic: a discourse of amorality/immorality and societal destruction, a discourse of alienization, and a discourse of medicalization or pathologization. The paper concludes with a call for a more balanced and ethically/socially responsible news reporting, especially since LGBT issues in Ghana hold implications for national cohesion and security.
Although the Chinese media’s construction of unmarried citizens as ‘leftover’ has incited much controversy, little research attention has been given to the ways ‘leftover men’ are represented in discourse. To ll this gap, this study... more
Although the Chinese media’s construction of unmarried citizens as ‘leftover’ has incited much controversy, little research attention has been given to the ways ‘leftover men’ are represented in discourse. To ll this gap, this study performs a critical discourse analysis of 65 English language news reports in Chinese media to investigate the predominant gendered discourses underlying representations of leftover men and the discursive strategies used to construct their identities. e ndings show that the media perpetuate a myth of ‘protest masculinity’ by suggesting that poor, single men may become a threat to social harmony due to the shortage of marriageable women in China. Leftover men are represented as poor men, troublemakers and victims via discursive processes that include referential, predicational and aggregation strategies as well as metaphor. This study sheds light on the issues and concerns of a marginalised group whose pre- dicament has not been given much attention in the literature.
This article details a study of mythological storytelling in the Ghanaian media. It analyzes a number of news articles about a Ghanaian celebrity, Yvonne Nelson, in the wake of leading a protest to pressure the government to find a... more
This article details a study of mythological storytelling in the Ghanaian media. It analyzes a number of news articles about a Ghanaian celebrity, Yvonne Nelson, in the wake of leading a protest to pressure the government to find a lasting solution to a two-year energy crisis in Ghana. Drawing on discourse-mythological analysis, the paper explores the discursive construction of hero mythology in the representation of Yvonne Nelson. The analysis reveals that Yvonne Nelson’s association with Yaa Asantewaa, a legendary Ashanti queen mother who led the Ashanti War of the Golden Stool against British colonialism in 1900, casts her in a “rebellious” role that reflects archetypal traits of mythological heroism. Consequently, she is depicted as a valiant warrior queen, a straight-talking woman of the people and the voice of the voiceless. This study contributes to the linguistic analysis of myths, moral stories and narratives in the media and illustrates how daily news content can be used to tell eternal stories.
The activities of Fulani nomads in Ghana have gained considerable media attention and engendered continuing public debate. In this paper, we analyze the prejudiced portrayals of the nomads in the Ghanaian news media, and how these... more
The activities of Fulani nomads in Ghana have gained considerable media attention and engendered continuing public debate. In this paper, we analyze the prejudiced portrayals of the nomads in the Ghanaian news media, and how these contribute to an exclusionist and a discriminatory discourse that puts the nomads at the margins of Ghanaian society. The study employs a critical discourse analysis framework and draws on a dataset of 160 articles, including news stories, editorials and op-ed pieces. The analysis reveals that the nomads are discursively constructed as undesirables through an othering process that centers on three discourses: a discourse of dangerousness/criminalization, a discourse of alienization, and a discourse of stigmatization. This anti-nomad/Fulani rhetoric is evident in the choice of sensational headlines, alarmist news content, organization of arguments, and use of quotations. The paper concludes with a call for more balanced and critical news reporting on the nomads, especially since issues surrounding them border on national cohesion and security.
Even though one of the aims of critical discourse analysis (CDA) is to demonstrate how social inequality, power abuse and discriminatory practices can be resisted, most studies have centered on the deconstruction of oppression and... more
Even though one of the aims of critical discourse analysis (CDA) is to demonstrate how social inequality, power abuse and discriminatory practices can be resisted, most studies have centered on the deconstruction of oppression and ideologically driven discrimination rather than the reconstruction of resistance. To fill this lacuna, the present paper examines the blogposts of Ghanaian feminists using feminist critical discourse analysis as an analytic framework. It analyzes resistance strategies utilized in the blogposts to criticize systematic gendering of privilege and inequality, and to foreground the voice and agency of Ghanaian/African women. Three resistance strategies were identified: (1) critiquing patriarchy, traditional gender norms and gender oppression, (2) resisting gender stereotypes and rewriting demeaning gender narratives, (3) calling out sexist attitudes and applauding women who resist such behavior. I argue that these strategies contribute to a feminist political critique of gendered social practices and relations aimed at effecting social emancipation and transformation. The paper ends by highlighting how the emancipatory discourse promoted by the blogs can be enhanced as part of a continuous striving for social justice for Ghanaian/African women.
This paper examines how Kwame Nkrumah, a pioneering Pan-African leader, utilizes metaphor to simultaneously construct heroes and villains, protagonists and antagonists, forming part of an ideological mechanism that portrays him as a... more
This paper examines how Kwame Nkrumah, a pioneering Pan-African leader, utilizes metaphor to simultaneously construct heroes and villains, protagonists and antagonists, forming part of an ideological mechanism that portrays him as a valiant leader and a noble revolutionary. Using critical metaphor analysis as an analytic framework and a number of Nkrumah speeches as the dataset, the paper finds that Nkrumah's use of WAR/CONFLICT and JOURNEY metaphors as well as PERSONIFICATION reflects archetypal traits of mythological heroism, giving an indication of how metaphorical structures enable political leaders to formulate a socially important representation. Specifically, Nkrumah constructs himself as a champion prizefighter on a solemn mission, facing challenges and triumphs along the way, to rescue Africa from tyranny and barbarism and safeguard the continent's welfare in the post-independence period. The implications of the study in terms of the importance of critical interest in metaphor investigation are discussed.
This chapter examines the encoded ideologies in the discourse of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s independence leader and a pioneering Pan-Africanist, bringing to the fore the role of (post-) independence leaders in political de-colonization... more
This chapter examines the encoded ideologies in the discourse of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s independence leader and a pioneering Pan-Africanist, bringing to the fore the role of (post-) independence leaders in political de-colonization processes. Using a specialized corpus of Nkrumah’s speeches and utilizing methods of analysis within corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis (CDA), the study reveals six main themes logically woven into a coherent discursive formation of Nkrumaism: African unity, African liberation, (neo-)colonialism and imperialism, Pan-Africanism, African personality and socialism. The study concludes with a discussion on the implications it has for corpus-assisted CDA, the theories of (critical) political discourse analysis and African history.
This paper uses positive discourse analysis to examine an independence leader’s resistance rhetoric against colonialism, imperialism and neocolonialism. It analyses speeches delivered by Ghana’s independence leader, Kwame Nkrumah, and... more
This paper uses positive discourse analysis to examine an independence leader’s resistance rhetoric against colonialism, imperialism and neocolonialism. It analyses speeches delivered by Ghana’s independence leader, Kwame Nkrumah, and finds that he adopts an anti-imperialist and anti-establishment stance through three processes: his explicit identification of Africa’s conspiratorial enemy, his sculpting of a gallant/heroic leader image and his projection of a messianic identity. The paper offers insights into the exploration of text and talk that suggest inspiring discursive practices and illustrates how discourse can be used to advance the goals of marginalized/repressed groups in order to instigate progressive social change.
This paper critically explores how an African independence leader uses his language to simultaneously construct heroes and villains, protagonists and antagonists forming part of an ideological mechanism that realizes an anti-imperialist... more
This paper critically explores how an African independence leader uses his language to simultaneously construct heroes and villains, protagonists and antagonists forming part of an ideological mechanism that realizes an anti-imperialist rhetoric and a discourse of resistance. It combines discourse-historical analysis with discourse-mythological analysis to examine a number of speeches delivered by Kwame Nkrumah, a pioneering Pan-Africanist and Ghana's independence leader. The analysis demonstrates that archetypal traits of mythological heroism in Nkrumah's discourse are constructed through his identification of a 'conspiratorial enemy' and his sculpt-ing of identities such as a 'valiant leader' and a 'noble revolution-ary'. The analysis also reveals that Nkrumah's language has identifiable features of Ghanaian English, including the use of Ghanaianisms, coinages/neologism, and idiomatic expressions, that helped him to (emotionally) connect with his audience and strengthen the persuasive impact of his speeches.
In this article, we analyze a seven-page speech delivered by Sukarno, first president of Indonesia, at the opening of the First Asia-Africa Conference where he advocated Afro-Asian unity/ solidarity as the panacea for colonialism,... more
In this article, we analyze a seven-page speech delivered by Sukarno, first president of Indonesia, at the opening of the First Asia-Africa Conference where he advocated Afro-Asian unity/ solidarity as the panacea for colonialism, imperialism, and neocolonialism. Our aim, by focusing on a single text, is to demonstrate the role of an intensive analysis of ‘outstanding’ singular texts within the broad field of discourse analysis. The analysis is rooted within a positive discourse analysis (PDA) framework, with special focus on lexical choices and variation, modality, intertextuality/interdiscursivity, metaphorical representations, ideological use of pronouns, indexical meaning, and strategies of argumentation. Through these rhetorical techniques, we illustrate how an independence leader constructs an emancipatory discourse aimed at reconciling the ideas and beliefs of the leaders of two continents that have a common history of colonialism. The study sheds light on the role of key speeches and political leaders in promoting an emancipatory discourse, and exemplifies how (presidential) rhetoric can be construed as offering a message of hope, strength, and inspiration while playing the role of a unifier, thereby highlighting the major underlying assumption of PDA: a commitment to a discourse of social change.
This article presents a discourse-mythological analysis of how Kwame Nkrumah, a pioneering Pan-African and Ghana’s independence leader, exploits metaphor to formulate and promote a univocal and an ideologically marked narrative that says... more
This article presents a discourse-mythological analysis of how Kwame Nkrumah, a pioneering Pan-African and Ghana’s independence leader, exploits metaphor to formulate and promote a univocal and an ideologically marked narrative that says Africa must necessarily unite as a confederation or be doomed forever. Using critical metaphor analysis as an analytic framework and a dataset of twenty speeches, the study focuses on the discursive construction of the Unite or Perish myth, how it is naturalized into public consciousness and the embedded ideological meaning in such discourse. The analysis demonstrates that Nkrumah systematically utilizes war, religious and journey metaphors via a (de)legitimation strategy that serves a twofold purpose of resisting colonialism and imperialism and advocating a Union Government of Africa. The persuasive force or ideological function of these metaphors is heightened by their interaction with other rhetorical tropes and schemes such as contrast and rhetorical question. By providing insight into the use of language in the service of myth, this study echoes the crucial role of metaphor in realizing the discourse goals of political speeches and, more broadly, how politics is performed and conceptualized.
Research Interests:
This paper is a comparative critical discourse analysis of Chinese and British insurance contracts. It analyses the similarities and differences in the identities that emerge from the situatedness of the insured and the insurer in the... more
This paper is a comparative critical discourse analysis of Chinese and British insurance contracts. It analyses the similarities and differences in the identities that emerge from the situatedness of the insured and the insurer in the contracts in order to determine the extent to which the sociocultural context within which the texts were conceived shape the texts. The study draws on the positioning theory and the notions of situated identity/situated meaning and is informed by analytic tools within critical discourse analysis. It found that in both the Chinese and British contracts, the insurer is linguistically and discursively situated as a powerful and resourceful 'regulator' (i.e. an active force) whereas the insured is mostly constructed in subjective and somewhat 'weak/vulnerable' terms. This similarity notwithstanding, the study found differences in terms of the kind of power relation, the level of formality or social distance and the dominant type of language evident in the two contracts. The Chinese contract was found to display a much stronger power relation and a more highly/strictly level of formality than the British contract. And whereas the Chinese contract was predominantly couched in very legal terms, the British contract had a more business-oriented focus. These differences demonstrate how (insurance) discourse may be shaped by the social and cultural contexts in which it is conceived and, possibly, sculpt the identities of all those addressed.
Research Interests:
In recent years, studies on discourses of resistance in politics have become prevalent, focusing mainly on the language of radical movements and rebel groups, but not the discourses on colonialism, imperialism, and repression which can be... more
In recent years, studies on discourses of resistance in politics have
become prevalent, focusing mainly on the language of radical
movements and rebel groups, but not the discourses on
colonialism, imperialism, and repression which can be considered
as potential sites for discourses of resistance. To fill this gap, this
paper critically explores how an independence leader utilized
metaphor to construct a discourse of resistance against
colonialism and imperialism. It analyzes a number of speeches
delivered by Kwame Nkrumah, a pioneering Pan-African and
Ghana’s independence leader, using a combination of models,
including critical metaphor analysis and membership
categorization analysis. The analysis illustrates that Nkrumah
deployed war/conflict/military and religious metaphors in
conjunction with other discursive strategies such as labeling or
stereotyping, category work, sentimentalism, victim-playing, and
negative other-presentation to formulate a resistance discourse
against colonialism and imperialism. These metaphors were
exploited through representations of (e)vilification, enemification,
demonization, freedom and justice, and attack and defense. This
paper provides insight into the use of language in the service of
resistance and activism, thereby demonstrating that the use of
metaphor by political actors serves manipulative and/or
ideological purposes (rather than achieving a literary/stylistic
effect) and illustrating that metaphor is essential to a leader’s
persuasive force.
become prevalent, focusing mainly on the language of radical
movements and rebel groups, but not the discourses on
colonialism, imperialism, and repression which can be considered
as potential sites for discourses of resistance. To fill this gap, this
paper critically explores how an independence leader utilized
metaphor to construct a discourse of resistance against
colonialism and imperialism. It analyzes a number of speeches
delivered by Kwame Nkrumah, a pioneering Pan-African and
Ghana’s independence leader, using a combination of models,
including critical metaphor analysis and membership
categorization analysis. The analysis illustrates that Nkrumah
deployed war/conflict/military and religious metaphors in
conjunction with other discursive strategies such as labeling or
stereotyping, category work, sentimentalism, victim-playing, and
negative other-presentation to formulate a resistance discourse
against colonialism and imperialism. These metaphors were
exploited through representations of (e)vilification, enemification,
demonization, freedom and justice, and attack and defense. This
paper provides insight into the use of language in the service of
resistance and activism, thereby demonstrating that the use of
metaphor by political actors serves manipulative and/or
ideological purposes (rather than achieving a literary/stylistic
effect) and illustrating that metaphor is essential to a leader’s
persuasive force.
Research Interests:
The incorporation of corpus linguistics (CL) methods within critical discourse analysis (CDA) has increasingly gathered momentum in the last decade. This paper surveys studies using this triangulated framework, drawing on a database of... more
The incorporation of corpus linguistics (CL) methods within critical discourse analysis (CDA) has increasingly gathered momentum in the last decade. This paper surveys studies using this triangulated framework, drawing on a database of 121 studies collected from three citation indexes: Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts & Humanities Citation Index and Scopus. It presents a meta-analysis of these studies focusing on four variables, namely their chronological development, the domains of engagement, the issues that have been topicalized and the area/regional coverage of the studies. In particular, the paper accounts for the factors that have contributed to the popularity of corpus-based CDA in the last decade as an approach to discourse analysis, provides insights into the evolution of this eclectic approach, and anticipates the future of the framework by offering suggestions. The paper concludes that corpus-based CDA presents both discourse analysts and corpus linguists with a robust methodology to tackle research questions bordering on discursive reflections of social issues and to identify new sites of public discourse for systematic analysis.
Research Interests:
In the last couple of decades, linguistic enquiry into internet genres has become prevalent, resulting in the investigation of internet genres such as live-text commentary, weblogs, online news/news websites, and social network sites. In... more
In the last couple of decades, linguistic enquiry into internet genres has become prevalent, resulting in the investigation of internet genres such as live-text commentary, weblogs, online news/news websites, and social network sites. In tandem with this research tradition, the current study investigated the football match preview in a bid to identify its schematic structure and the rhetorical strategies deployed by producers of this genre in achieving their communicative goal(s). Six match previews taken from two online sports websites, Goal.com and Sky-sports.com, comprised the data for the study and Swales' (1990; 2004) framework of move analysis was used to analyse the data. The study found that the match preview employed a six-move pattern, namely naming the contest, pre-contest dynamics, predicting team line-ups and team formations, assessing squad strength, discussing the contest and naming the preview author. These moves were found to be realised by a relatively restricted range of lexico-grammatical resources. This study has implications for the construction of the match preview genre and future genre studies.
Research Interests:
This paper analyses the communicative functions of the Gã (Niger–Congo, Kwa branch) clausal connective nì, roughly corresponding to English 'and', drawing on Wilson and Sperber's (1995; 2004) relevance theory. The study demonstrates that... more
This paper analyses the communicative functions of the Gã (Niger–Congo, Kwa branch) clausal connective nì, roughly corresponding to English 'and', drawing on Wilson and Sperber's (1995; 2004) relevance theory. The study demonstrates that nì is a conjunction that achieves optimal relevance when the nì-utterance has cognitive effects that transcend those of the individual conjuncts of nì. Importantly, the use of nì leads the way in providing clues that aid the interlocutor to " work out " the nature of the inferential relation between the conjuncts. These inferential relations, including addition, temporality, causality, contrast and parallelism, ultimately enable the interlocutor to arrive at the desired and/or intended interpretation of the utterance as a whole. This paper is, thus, an attempt to account for the meaning of nì as well as the pragmatic processes that inform the specific inferential relations between the nì-conjuncts. It also illumines the ways in which pragmatic enrichment and context-dependent inference can strengthen the logical form of clausal coordination in Gã.
In the last two decades, the compilation of corpora and the analysis of linguistic phenomena via corpus data have become a fascinating linguistic practice around the world and by this, corpus linguistics is now firmly established as a... more
In the last two decades, the compilation of corpora and the analysis of linguistic phenomena via corpus data have become a fascinating linguistic practice around the world and by this, corpus linguistics is now firmly established as a credible approach for the study of language. Linguists and other researchers of varied persuasions are appreciating more and more the interesting dimensions corpora are introducing to language studies. Yet, not much corpus-based work goes on in Ghana. In this paper, we suggest that a vital first step towards the development of Ghanaian English (GhE) lies in the initiation of large-scale electronic corpus projects. The paper argues that corpora can go a long way to enhance the linguistic descriptions of GhE, making the features of the variety more visible and providing a good opportunity for its codification. The results of building corpora for the study of GhE will not only highlight its rich features, but also help Ghanaians and policy makers to determine its proper status in the country.
In his article “Representations of Ghanaian politicians in contemporary Ghanaian hiplife music”, Mark Nartey explores the portrayal of Ghanaian politicians in contemporary Ghanaian hiplife music and reveals that the politicians are... more
In his article “Representations of Ghanaian politicians in contemporary Ghanaian hiplife music”, Mark Nartey explores the portrayal of Ghanaian politicians in contemporary Ghanaian hiplife music and reveals that the politicians are largely depicted as self-seeking, self-serving and self-centered. The article argues that since its emergence on the Ghanaian music scene in the early 1990s, hiplife music now transcends its original purpose of providing an entertainment outlet for its audience, predominantly the youth, offering them a pleasurable and therapeutic means of escaping from the harsh realities and pressures of life. Importantly, the article demonstrates that this music genre has taken on a new and, perhaps, more important role: a legitimate avenue for Ghanaian musicians to freely express their views and opinions on virtually every subject within the country. The article concludes that music can be a powerful tool for societal change or reform.
Research Interests:
ABSTRACT In the last two decades, the compilation of corpora and the analysis of linguistic phenomena via corpus data have become a fascinating linguistic practice around the world and by this, corpus linguistics is now firmly established... more
ABSTRACT
In the last two decades, the compilation of corpora and the analysis of linguistic phenomena via corpus data have become a fascinating linguistic practice around the world and by this, corpus linguistics is now firmly established as a credible approach for the study of language. Linguists and other researchers of varied persuasions are appreciating more and more the interesting dimensions corpora are introducing to language studies. Yet, not much corpus-based work goes on in Ghana. In this paper, we suggest that a vital first step towards the development of Ghanaian English (GhE) lies in the initiation of large-scale electronic corpus projects. The paper argues that corpora can go a long way to enhance the linguistic descriptions of GhE, making the features of the variety more visible and providing a good opportunity for its codification. The results of building corpora for the study of GhE will not only highlight its rich features, but also help Ghanaians and policy makers to determine its proper status in the country.
Keywords: codification; corpora; corpus linguistics; Ghanaian English; linguistic description
In the last two decades, the compilation of corpora and the analysis of linguistic phenomena via corpus data have become a fascinating linguistic practice around the world and by this, corpus linguistics is now firmly established as a credible approach for the study of language. Linguists and other researchers of varied persuasions are appreciating more and more the interesting dimensions corpora are introducing to language studies. Yet, not much corpus-based work goes on in Ghana. In this paper, we suggest that a vital first step towards the development of Ghanaian English (GhE) lies in the initiation of large-scale electronic corpus projects. The paper argues that corpora can go a long way to enhance the linguistic descriptions of GhE, making the features of the variety more visible and providing a good opportunity for its codification. The results of building corpora for the study of GhE will not only highlight its rich features, but also help Ghanaians and policy makers to determine its proper status in the country.
Keywords: codification; corpora; corpus linguistics; Ghanaian English; linguistic description
Research Interests:
Abstract In the last half a decade, social network sites (SNSs) have wrought a tremendous impact on interpersonal communication across the world to the extent that it can be postulated, arguably, that such sites/platforms represent the... more
Abstract
In the last half a decade, social network sites (SNSs) have wrought a tremendous impact on interpersonal communication across the world to the extent that it can be postulated, arguably, that such sites/platforms represent the commonest new media in Ghana (Coker, 2012). However, the communicative significance of this new media as a means of articulating varying views and communicating differing intentions is relatively unknown in Ghana. In this paper, I examine, ipso facto, the various categories of speech acts that manifest in the messages used by Ghanaian university students to update their status on Facebook as well as the pragmatic underpinnings of these messages. Based on a combined framework of Austin and Searle’s speech act theory and Warschauer and Herring’s notion of computer-mediated communication, the analysis on a corpus of 60 online messages indicated that Facebook status updates of Ghanaian university students are characterized by five speech acts, prominent among which are directives and asssertives. The study also revealed that the messages are informed and conditioned by multiple pragmatic notions, and reflect the socio-cultural variation and culture-specificity of language use in SNSs. These findings bear theoretical implications as well as hold implications for further research in computer-mediated communication and communication studies.
Key words: Social network site, computer-mediated communication, facebook, status update
In the last half a decade, social network sites (SNSs) have wrought a tremendous impact on interpersonal communication across the world to the extent that it can be postulated, arguably, that such sites/platforms represent the commonest new media in Ghana (Coker, 2012). However, the communicative significance of this new media as a means of articulating varying views and communicating differing intentions is relatively unknown in Ghana. In this paper, I examine, ipso facto, the various categories of speech acts that manifest in the messages used by Ghanaian university students to update their status on Facebook as well as the pragmatic underpinnings of these messages. Based on a combined framework of Austin and Searle’s speech act theory and Warschauer and Herring’s notion of computer-mediated communication, the analysis on a corpus of 60 online messages indicated that Facebook status updates of Ghanaian university students are characterized by five speech acts, prominent among which are directives and asssertives. The study also revealed that the messages are informed and conditioned by multiple pragmatic notions, and reflect the socio-cultural variation and culture-specificity of language use in SNSs. These findings bear theoretical implications as well as hold implications for further research in computer-mediated communication and communication studies.
Key words: Social network site, computer-mediated communication, facebook, status update
Research Interests:
Abstract Following Brown and Gilman’s (1960) study, sociolinguists have shown an increasing interest in the use of address forms in various social milieus such as religion, politics, media and academia. Using a two-pronged conceptual... more
Abstract
Following Brown and Gilman’s (1960) study, sociolinguists have shown an increasing interest in the use of address forms in various social milieus such as religion, politics, media and academia. Using a two-pronged conceptual framework derived from interactional sociolinguistics and an ethnographic research paradigm, this study explores how students in a Ghanaian public university address one another, strategically deploying varied terms of endearment. Three key findings emerged from the study. The first finding is that university students use epithets, flora terms, royal terms and coinage from personal names as key terms of endearment. Second, these terms of endearment serve socio-pragmatic purposes; and third, the use of endearment terms among Ghanaian university students, as Afful (2006, 2007) intimates, suggests the innovativeness, playfulness and creativity of the students as well as the warmth and conviviality and/or vivacity of African culture, even in an educational provenance. These findings have implications for inter/cross-cultural communication, language use at an educational institution, and further sociolinguistic research on terms of endearment.
Key words: address forms, endearment term, ethnographic-style, students, university
Following Brown and Gilman’s (1960) study, sociolinguists have shown an increasing interest in the use of address forms in various social milieus such as religion, politics, media and academia. Using a two-pronged conceptual framework derived from interactional sociolinguistics and an ethnographic research paradigm, this study explores how students in a Ghanaian public university address one another, strategically deploying varied terms of endearment. Three key findings emerged from the study. The first finding is that university students use epithets, flora terms, royal terms and coinage from personal names as key terms of endearment. Second, these terms of endearment serve socio-pragmatic purposes; and third, the use of endearment terms among Ghanaian university students, as Afful (2006, 2007) intimates, suggests the innovativeness, playfulness and creativity of the students as well as the warmth and conviviality and/or vivacity of African culture, even in an educational provenance. These findings have implications for inter/cross-cultural communication, language use at an educational institution, and further sociolinguistic research on terms of endearment.
Key words: address forms, endearment term, ethnographic-style, students, university
Research Interests:
ABSTRACT Following the work of Santos (1996), studies on research articles and dissertation abstracts have elicited considerable attention. The present research examines grammatical cohesion in the Language and Literature abstracts of... more
ABSTRACT
Following the work of Santos (1996), studies on research articles and dissertation abstracts have elicited considerable attention. The present research examines grammatical cohesion in the Language and Literature abstracts of undergraduate dissertations presented to the Department of English of a public university in Ghana – the University of Cape Coast (UCC). A total of 50 abstracts (25 each from Language and Literature) constituted the data set for the study. Using mixed research design and drawing on Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) influential theory of cohesion, the study points to three key findings. First, of Halliday and Hasan’s four grammatical cohesive devices (that is, conjunction, reference, substitution, and ellipses) reference and conjunction are preponderantly used. Second, the use of these grammatical devices in the Language and Literature abstracts evinces more similarities than differences. Third, although undergraduate students studying English at the University of Cape Coast do use a range of grammatical cohesive devices, they seem to lack sophistication in their use. The findings of this study have implications for pedagogy, theory, academic writing and further research.
Key words: cohesion, undergraduate dissertation abstract, genre, discipline
Following the work of Santos (1996), studies on research articles and dissertation abstracts have elicited considerable attention. The present research examines grammatical cohesion in the Language and Literature abstracts of undergraduate dissertations presented to the Department of English of a public university in Ghana – the University of Cape Coast (UCC). A total of 50 abstracts (25 each from Language and Literature) constituted the data set for the study. Using mixed research design and drawing on Halliday and Hasan’s (1976) influential theory of cohesion, the study points to three key findings. First, of Halliday and Hasan’s four grammatical cohesive devices (that is, conjunction, reference, substitution, and ellipses) reference and conjunction are preponderantly used. Second, the use of these grammatical devices in the Language and Literature abstracts evinces more similarities than differences. Third, although undergraduate students studying English at the University of Cape Coast do use a range of grammatical cohesive devices, they seem to lack sophistication in their use. The findings of this study have implications for pedagogy, theory, academic writing and further research.
Key words: cohesion, undergraduate dissertation abstract, genre, discipline
Research Interests:
Abstract Political election manifestos are public declarations of political parties, in which they explicitly stipulate their policies in a bid to win over the electorate. This study explores, in situ, the semantic underpinnings of modal... more
Abstract
Political election manifestos are public declarations of political parties, in which they explicitly stipulate their policies in a bid to win over the electorate. This study explores, in situ, the semantic underpinnings of modal auxiliary verbs in the 2012 manifesto of a popular Ghanaian political party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and demonstrates perceptibly that modal auxiliary verbs have the propensity to reveal very subtle and nuanced meanings of the nature of political discourse. The study is rooted in a content qualitative research paradigm, and the analysis reveals that modal auxiliary verbs are used extensively in the NPP 2012 political manifesto to give the message a sense of intention, promise, obligation and necessity in a conscious and strategic attempt to persuade the electorate. To this end, we avow that political rhetoric is conditioned by specific aims and exact themes. The findings of the study bear implications for pedagogy, the theory of modality, text construction and/or composition and further discourse analytical studies on political speeches, particularly on political manifestos.
Key words: manifesto, modal auxiliary verbs, NPP, political discourse
Political election manifestos are public declarations of political parties, in which they explicitly stipulate their policies in a bid to win over the electorate. This study explores, in situ, the semantic underpinnings of modal auxiliary verbs in the 2012 manifesto of a popular Ghanaian political party, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and demonstrates perceptibly that modal auxiliary verbs have the propensity to reveal very subtle and nuanced meanings of the nature of political discourse. The study is rooted in a content qualitative research paradigm, and the analysis reveals that modal auxiliary verbs are used extensively in the NPP 2012 political manifesto to give the message a sense of intention, promise, obligation and necessity in a conscious and strategic attempt to persuade the electorate. To this end, we avow that political rhetoric is conditioned by specific aims and exact themes. The findings of the study bear implications for pedagogy, the theory of modality, text construction and/or composition and further discourse analytical studies on political speeches, particularly on political manifestos.
Key words: manifesto, modal auxiliary verbs, NPP, political discourse
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Abstract: In the last two and half decades, academic literacy has received considerable attention in tertiary education in several English-medium universities. Consequently, English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and analogous writing... more
Abstract: In the last two and half decades, academic literacy has received considerable attention in tertiary education in several English-medium universities. Consequently, English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and analogous writing programs have constantly been revised in the United States of America, the United Kingdom and Australia, especially with the objective meeting the needs of students. Contrarily, EAP programs in most countries in sub-saharan Africa, including Ghana have received very little innovation and change. In this paper, we moot the idea that the principal reason for which a vast majority of students fail an EAP program (Academic Writing) in an English-medium university in Ghana stems from the lack of correlation between the course curriculum/classroom pedagogy and the course examination. To this end, we propose key changes to the curriculum, and conclude with a discussion of some implications worth considering for both curriculum designers and implementers of EAP in university education.
Key words: Academic writing. Ghana, students, university
Key words: Academic writing. Ghana, students, university