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Browsing School of Languages by Author "Agbedor, P."
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Item Ewe Verbal Taboos: A Study in Indirection(Issues in Intercultural Communication 2(2): 193-211, 2009) Agbedor, P.; Johnson, B.In all languages, there are certain words and expressions that are regarded as unsuitable for general use either because they deserve particular reverence or because they are felt to be ‘unclean’ or vulgar. The word taboo derives from the Polynesian word tabu which referred to a prohibition forbidding certain actions, contacts, relationships or words (Todd & Hancock 1986). This paper looks at the linguistic aspect of taboos in Ewe. There are verbal and behavioral taboos. The latter involves certain acts that are prohibited in a particular community, for example incest is a taboo act, but the expression for it is not forbidden. The other type of taboo has to do with words and expressions relating to certain phenomena that are prohibited. This paper’s focus is on verbal taboos, and discusses the types of expressions used in place of the taboo expressions. It is noted that taboo avoidance expressions involve euphemisms, which take forms such as metaphor, circumlocution and apologetic expressions.Item A Sociolinguistic Study of Ewe “Drinking” Names(Issues in Intercultural Communication 2(2): 175-192, 2009) Agbedor, P.This paper examines a category of Ewe personal names that are called ahanokwo or ‘praise appellations’. This is a category of names taken by the individual later in adulthood. The name is a whole discourse comprising a prompt, which is the clipped form of the discourse, and a response, which is the appellation that goes with the name, and is part of the discourse. These names perform various functions – they praise, they exhort, they insinuate, they warn against bad behavior, they entertain and they comment on life in general. They represent the philosophical and religious aspirations of the Ewe people. The paper discusses these functions and also the literary devices that these names employ, such as metaphor, symbolism and personification.Item Some Verbal Alternations in Ewe(Afrika und Übersee (89): 109-126, 2007) Osam, E. K.; Bobuafor, M.; Agbedor, P.Verbs which imply causative / inchoative alternation can occur as either one-place or two-place predicates. Such verbs are usually of change-of-state verbs. However, this paper identifies certain change-of-state verbs that do not take part in this alternation; importantly, it identifies alternations in which the object is not expressed. The unexpressed object alternations are of two types: the understood object and the unspecified object. Only a few verbs show the understood object alternation; they include mu „be drunk‟ and kpã „end, stop‟. Verbs that undergo the unspecified object alternation include verbs of “inherent directed motion”, verbs of “involuntary bodily processes” and verbs of “cries and movement”.