Browsing by Author "Amfo, N.A.A."
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Item 'Abroad’ and Semantically Related Terms in Some European Languages and Akan. In: Languages and Cultures in Contrast and Comparison, edited by Maria de los Angeles Gomez-Gonzalez, Lachlan Mackenzie and Elsa Gonzalez-Alvarez(Amsterdam : John Benjamins, pp. 173-191, 2008) Amfo, N.A.A.; Fretheim, T.Item Address by the Vice-Chancellor at the Opening of the 73rd Annual New Year School and Conference.(University of Ghana, 2022-01-25) Amfo, N.A.A.Item Akan Demonstratives. In: Selected Proceedings of the 37th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, edited by Doris Payne and Jaime Peña.(Sommerville, Cascadilla Press, pp.134-148, 2009) Amfo, N.A.A.Item Aspects of the Morphology of C'lela(University of Ghana, 2013-06) Aliero, M.A.; Saah, K.K.; Amfo, N.A.A.; Duthie, A.S.The main goal of this study is to describe the morphological properties of C’lela; a Niger-Congo, Western Kainji language spoken in the eastern part of Kebbi State, Nigeria. The study mainly adopted the classic descriptive model of linguistics in particular to explore and highlight the morphological processes and properties of C’lela. The relevant data for the study were sourced mainly from the extant literature on C’lela as well as the field data. By and large, the primary data were corroborated with the secondary sources. The study established that C’lela has distinctive morphological properties akin to other languages across West Africa. C’lela uses prefixes and suffixes on nominal and verbal categories to provide information about number and tense, and equally undergoes the major morphological processes such as compounding, derivation, affixation, and reduplication. In terms of derivation it was revealed that though derivational processes in C’lela are analyzable mainly on the principles of concatenative morphology where prefixes and suffixes are in concatenative relationship with their host stems, the language also lends itself to non-concatenative morphology, where the internal stem- vowel, instead of affixes, contains the syntactic and semantic information in the derivation. This suggests that C’lela has a derivational system that exploits affixation, as well as internal modification. With regard to compounding, it emerged that C’lela is an endocentric but a left-headed language. It was also realized that the language exhibits both partial and complete reduplications, which in most cases are lexical and semantic in function. It was particularly noted that the complete reduplication of verbs that contain heavy-initial disyllabic stems in C’lela are accompanied by phonological operations such as syllable truncation and imbrication. The study while illustrating the chief morphological processes inherent in C’lela, endeavored to examine and highlight the various phonological processes that are often triggered when stems come into contact with affixes or when compounding and/or reduplication take place. These morphophonological processes include but are not limited to; vowel copying, vowel lengthening, vowel deletion, metathesis, vowel lowering, complementary distribution, syllable truncation, and imbrication.Item Beyond Babel: Communicating in Context and Across Domains(University of Ghana, 2019-04-11) Amfo, N.A.A.Linguistic structures like words, phrases, sentences, and longer utterances, whether spoken or written, are carefully chosen by speakers to reflect their intent and to direct the addressee in such a way that misinterpretation is minimised. Additionally, it has long been recognised that language is inextricably linked to culture and thought. Pragmatics, a sub-discipline of Linguistics, is defined by the International Pragmatics Association as “the science of language use, in its widest interdisciplinary sense as a functional (i.e. cognitive, social, and cultural) perspective on language and communication”. Studies within this sub-discipline allow practitioners to interrogate linguistic strategies at different levels and examine how these influence the behaviour and practices of the language user. In this lecture, I provide an overview of how Pragmatics can be done at both ‘formal’ and social levels within a multilingual African context, such as Ghana. Drawing on my past and on-going research, I demonstrate that the study of language use in context is not restricted to the ‘formal’ level of language study. Thus, in addition to presenting work that has been done in ‘formal’ pragmatics, I consider the use of language in two domains which have engaged my attention in the past few years. The first is Language and gender, where I examine how language is used to create and sustain gender roles, while legitimising these roles within specified cultural contexts. The second is Language and health, where I examine how language reflects societal views of some medical conditions and how that is likely to affect the management of such conditions. In both domains, I demonstrate that language reflects human thought, and that our cultural and behavioural practices emanate from there. A study of linguistic strategies employed in specific domains provides the basis for an appreciation of the thoughts of particular communities in specific contexts. Especially intriguing is the multiplicity of languages that African communities, such as ours, have to contend with, in addition to (non-indigenous) official languages. I interrogate how we have managed that process so far and conclude that this aspect of our national and continental reality should not be overlooked as we seek to modernise, develop and globalise.Item Celebrating Scientific Renaissance Of Africa: A Holistic Approach To The Contribution Of Science To National Development.(University of Ghana., 2022-06-27) Amfo, N.A.A.Item Clausal Conjunction in Akan(Lingua 117(4): 666-684, 2007) Amfo, N.A.A.The focus of this paper is the clausal coordinating connective nà in Akan, roughly corresponding to English and. Nà makes a conjunction of sentences optimally relevant when it has cognitive effects over and above the cognitive effects due to each of its conjuncts taken individually. Specifically the use of nà tells the interlocutor to look out for certain kinds of inferential relations between the conjuncts. These inferential relations, which become crucial in aiding the interlocutor to arrive at the intended interpretation of the utterance as a whole, could be temporal, causal, parallel, contrastive, and also the second conjunct can be interpreted as an explanatory comment on the information represented in the first conjunct. This paper is an attempt to account for what is semantically encoded as the meaning of nà. More significantly, it explores the pragmatics that influences the specific inferential relations between conjuncts. Specifically it examines the ways in which the logical form of an Akan conjunction of sentences is likely to be strengthened through context-dependent inference.Item Commissioning Of The Balme Library Instructional Lab.(University of Ghana., 2022-07-19) Amfo, N.A.A.Item Commissioning Of The University Of Ghana Basic School Canteen.(University of Ghana., 2022-07-19) Amfo, N.A.A.Item Commissioning Of University Of Ghana Medical Centre (Ugmc) Phase II.(University of Ghana, 2022-06-17) Amfo, N.A.A.Item Comparing Demonstratives in Kwa(Legon Journal of Humanities (20): 181-211, 2009) Amfo, N.A.A.; Boateng Norgbe, S.This paper is a comparative study of demonstrative forms in three Kwa languages, Akan, Ga and Ewe. It examines the syntax, morphology, semantics and pragmatics of the demonstrative systems in these languages. The existence of various categories such as demonstrative determiner, demonstrative pronoun, demonstrative adverb, demonstrative identifier and the under-described ‘particular’ demonstratives in these three languages is examined. Semantically, we observe a basic two-way deictic contrast for most of the demonstrative systems, even though there are a few variations. The most significant qualitative feature distinction observed is one of humanness. The dearth of the morphology of these forms is noted. Finally, the role of the demonstratives in the organisation of speech flow is considered. The description of the demonstrative systems of these languages could lead to an eventual re-construction of the demonstrative system in the proto-language.Item Comparing Demonstratives in Kwa(Legon Journal of the Humanities, University of Ghana, 2009) Amfo, N.A.A.; Norgbe, S.B.This paper is a comparative study of demonstrative forms in three Kwa languages, Akan, Ga and Ewe. It examines the syntax, morphology, semantics and pragmatics of the demonstrative systems in these languages. The existence of various categories such as demonstrative determiner, demonstrative pronoun, demonstrative adverb, demonstrative identifier and the under-described ‘particular’ demonstratives in these three languages is examined. Semantically, we observe a basic two-way deictic contrast for most of the demonstrative systems, even though there are a few variations. The most significant qualitative feature distinction observed is one of humanness. The dearth of the morphology of these forms is noted. Finally, the role of the demonstratives in the organisation of speech flow is considered. The description of the demonstrative systems of these languages could lead to an eventual re-construction of the demonstrative system in the proto-language.Item Conference On The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Beacons Celebration.(University of Ghana., 2022-05-18) Amfo, N.A.A.Item Congregation Ceremony For The School Of Graduate Studies, University Of Ghana Medical School And University Of Ghana Dental School(University of Ghana., 2022-07-29) Amfo, N.A.A.Item The Dangme Clausal Connective(2011) Amfo, N.A.A.The focus of this paper is to analyze the semantics of the general Dangme clausal connective n ‘and’, and the pragmatic relations which pertain between clauses which are linked by this marker. The paper describes the nature of the clausal linkage achieved by means of the marker n, examining the nature of the nexus of n constructions. Like its other natural language counterparts, the semantics of n works in tandem with other crucial features of the linguistic and extra-linguistic context to bring to light specific inter-clausal relations existing between the linked clauses. These inter-clausal relations are pertinent to the derivation of the intended cognitive effects, which render specific n-constructions optimally relevant. The identified pragmatic relations that exist between clauses linked by n are temporal, causal, contrastive, parallel, additive and explanatory. The paper explores the motivation for particularly the explanatory inter-clausal relation, since such a relation has been predicted as unlikely for some other natural language counterparts of n, and it examines the syntactic constraints under which such explanatory relations are possible.Item “The Discussion (and/or Closing) section of empirical research articles: What needs to be said and how, to get published in English-medium international journals”(2018-02-01) Moreno, A.I.; Amfo, N.A.A.Researchers all over the world are nowadays subject to the pressure to publish-or-perish more than ever before. Multilingual researchers often consider themselves at a disadvantage in comparison to scholars who have English as their first language, particularly as journals in languages other than English do not accrue the high impact of English language journals. Of all the genres that are published in a scientific journal, the most relevant for multilingual researchers is the empirical research article (ERA). The sections that social scientists, in particular, find most difficult to write in English are the ERA discussion and conclusion. In this presentation I report findings of a comparison of the generic structure of discussion (and/or conclusion) sections between international-English-medium journals and Spanish-medium journals. The comparison yields interesting crosscultural differences across the two contexts and across the social sciences and other sciences. Awareness of them might help multilingual scholars in the social sciences to write this section more efficiently when targeting international scientific journals. The presentation then focusses on the social sciences and reveals the most salient language resources employed in English to realize the communicative functions that are most characteristic of ERAs in an international context. It is hoped that this kind of study might inspire similar comparisons across English and other languages.Item Explaining Connections in Akan Discourse(Languages In Contrast 7(2): 119-136, 2007) Amfo, N.A.A.The present paper focuses on the communicative roles of three discourse markers, na, (n)so and nanso, in Akan, a Niger Congo (Kwa branch) language. (N)so is an additive focus marker. Its use gives the addressee and indication that the (n)so-utterance ought to be processed within a parallel context provided by the immediately preceding utterance. It highlights the fact that the kind of parallel context that licenses the use of (n)so is much more lenient than is the case for the use of its English equivalent also/too. Significantly, an explanatory relation is among the inferential relations that may arise as a result of the use of the clausal coordinating connective na, a situation which is not permissible in the case of its English counterpart and. The contrastive marker nanso, much like its English counterpart but, signals that the proposition expressed in a following utterance is contrary to what is to be expected. It is suggested that specific language-internal facts ought to be recognized and accounted for within the pursuit of a general cognitive theory of utterance interpretation.Item Force Dynamics and Causation in Akan(University of Ghana, 2013-06) Duah, R.A.; Osam, E.K.; Saah, K.K.; Amfo, N.A.A.This study investigates the expression of force-dynamics in Akan (Talmy 2000). Two main types of causatives can be found in the language, namely non- periphrastic causatives (lexical causatives and cause-effect SVCs) and periphrastic causatives (analytic causatives). The study examines the syntactic properties of causatives and shows that while lexical causatives and cause-effect SVCs involve a monoclausal structure, the analytic causative displays a complex (bi-clausal) structure. In Akan, the difference in the coding of the causee argument in analytic causatives is neither coincidental nor superficial but points to a difference in syntactic properties and structure. It is argued that the different syntactic marking of the causee argument in Akan causatives is not predicted by a syntactic case hierarchy as claimed by Comrie 1976 neither is it motivated by the degree of agentivity of the causee in the causative interaction as Cole 1983 proposed. Rather, the alternative marking of the causee is as a result of restructuring of a complement causative sentence into a partial lexicalised serial verb construction in the language. Five event types of causation are identified namely, MANIPULATION, CREATE, TRIGGER, PROMPT and ALLOW and their properties analysed through Talmy’s (2000) force-dynamics framework. The notion of direct and indirect causation is also examined in Akan. It is emphasized that, at least in Akan, it is better to map event type of causation with the notion of (in)directness of causation because a single causative expression may involve more than one event type of causation.Item Fourth School of Languages Conference.(University of Ghana, 2021-11-05) Amfo, N.A.A.Item Ghana Asks: Legon Answers(University of Ghana., 2022-06-30) Amfo, N.A.A.
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