Ghanaianisms: Towards a semantic and a formal classification

Abstract

A list of vocabulary items peculiar to English in Ghana has been compiled over the last ten years. Included are items that have appeared in print at least three times within eight years. Most items were tested on Ghanaians of varying ages, ethnic backgrounds and levels of education to ascertain familiarity and usage. The paper is based on the above data. It classifies the entries according to (1) origin: English, local, hybrid; and (2) semantic and formal subcategorisations, i.e. (i) which semantic and formal processes the English items have undergone, (ii) from which semantic domains the local items are drawn and (iii) by which processes the hybrids were created. © 2001 John Benjamins Publishing Company.