English ‘non-name’ address forms in the non-native sociolinguistic context
The case study of the Akan of Ghana
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.37831Keywords:
address terms, formal title, status description, kinship terms, filial terms, Akan, GhanaAbstract
In this paper, the focus is on non-name address forms, or rather, non-proper name address forms, and they are seen as English loan words, which are originally used in the native English culture not as address terms or names. With their use in the Akan culture, these expressions have not only been loaned, but they have also been referentially transformed. The paper looks at the use of such address forms of English origin as kinship terms, common formal titles, status-description names, names denoting age and physical characteristics and occupational names in the Akan culture. It discusses the meaning and use of these names vis-à-vis their usage in Standard English. The paper also discusses the processes of indigenisation as the terms are adopted into the Akan sociolinguistic culture.
References
Achebe, C. (1976) Morning yet on creation day. London and Ibadan: Heinemann.
Adetugbo, O. A (1969) The pronoun in Yoruba: Its functions in 3 dialects. Paper presented at the 8th Congress of the West Africa Society of Linguistics, Ibadan.
Afful, J. B. A. (2006) Address terms among university students in Ghana: A case study. Language and Intercultural Communication 6(1): 76–91. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14708470608668909.
Afful, J. B. A. (2007) Address forms and variation among university students in Ghana. Nordic Journal of African Studies 16(2): 179–196.
Agyekum, K. (2006) The sociolinguistics of Akan personal names. Nordic Journal of African Studies 15(2): 206–235.
Ahulu, S. (1995) Hybridised English in Ghana. English Today 11(4): 31–36. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078400008609.
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1964) Nuer modes of address. In D. H. Hymes (ed.) Language in culture and society: A reader in linguistics and anthropology 221–227. New York: Harper & Row.
Fadipe, N. (1970) The sociology of the Yoruba. Ibadan: University Press.
Forson, B. E (1996) An Investigation in the argot (Pidgin) as a means of communication in Ghanaian secondary schools. M. Phil. Thesis, University of Ghana, Legon.
Forson, B. E (1997) School pidgin: A further evidence of variety of usage in Ghana. Unpublished Seminar Paper, Division of Languages, UCEW, Winneba.
Gyasi, I. K. (1991) Aspects of English in Ghana. English Today 28: 26–31. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078400005502.
Kachru, B. B. (1977) The new Englishes and old models. English Language Forum 15(3): 29–35.
Luong, Huy V. 1990. Discursive practices and linguistic meanings: The Vietnamese system of person reference. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.11.
Methodist Church, Ghana (1992) Constitution and Standing Orders of the Methodist Church, Ghana. (Rev. ed.). Accra: Conference of the Methodist Church, Ghana.
Nketia, J. H. (1955) Funeral dirges of the Akan people. London: Epworth.
Obeng, S. G. (1997) From morphophonology to sociolinguistics: A case of Akan hypocoristic day-names. Multilingua 16(1): 39–56. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/mult.1997.16.1.39.
Obeng, S. G. (2001) African anthroponomy: A ethnopragmatic and morphonological study of names in Akan and some African societies. Munich: Lincom Europa.
Owusu-Ansah, L. K. (1994a) Modality in Ghanaian and American personal letters. World Englishes 13(3): 341–349. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-971X.1994.tb00320.x.
Owusu-Ansah, L. K. (1994b) Is there a Ghanaian English? Evidence from the study of contextual variation. [Unpublished Seminar Paper]. Faculty of Arts, University of Cape Coast.
Oyatede, S. O. (1995) A sociolinguistic analysis of address forms in Yoruba. Language in Society 24: 515–535. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S004740450001900X.
Quarcoo, E. (1994) The English language as a modern Ghanaian artefact. Journal of Black Studies 24(3): 515–535. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/002193479402400307.
Sankoff, G. 2001, Linguistic outcomes of language contact. In P. Trudgill, J. Chambers and N. Schilling-Estes (eds) Handbook of Sociolinguistics 638–668. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470756591.ch25.
Sey, K. (1973) Ghanaian English. London: Macmillan.
