Honorifics and status indexing in akan communication

Abstract

This paper addresses honorifics as an important aspect of formality, persuasion and politeness in Akan. Akan is a traditional society that attaches greater importance to address forms, honorifics and politeness in speech situations. This paper considers honorifics as a deference system; it treats types of honorifics and their linguistic forms, such as power-based, solidarity, occupational and gender-based honorifics. I shall also look at some of the ethnographic situations in which honorifics are employed. © 2003 K. Agyekum.