Journal of Linguistics and Foreign Languages
Journal of Linguistics and Foreign Languages, is a quarterly peer-reviewed journal that focuses on the description of Foreign Languages such as English, French, German, Italian, Spanish within the framework of contemporary linguistics. This journal focuses on articles and short discussion papers or squibs on all core aspects of languages and linguistics, from its beginnings to the present day, including syntax, morphology, phonology, semantics, pragmatics, corpus linguistics, and lexis. Occasional issues are devoted to a special topic when a guest editor is invited to commission articles from leading specialists in the field. Articles in this journal are evaluated on their own scholarly merit and research integrity, and our expert academic editors take an objective and constructive approach to rigorous review.
The Discursive Construction of Political Power and Citizen Action in 2024 Kenyan Newspaper Headlines
This study investigates the ideological construction of political power, social agency, and leadership in the 2024 Kenyan newspaper headlines of the Daily Nation and The Standard newspapers. Employing an integrative model of CDA approaches in the analysis, it investigated how the language of the headlines personalizes power, limiting collective agency, and intensifies elite-centered narratives. Despite the historic Gen Z-led protests that challenged state authority and ignited governance changes, the media continually foregrounded a few political actors while systematically backgrounding alternative discourses. Using tools of van Dijk’s ideological square, van Leeuwen’s role allocation, and framing theory, this study indicates that headlines worked ideologically by emphasizing crisis, personalizing power, and marginalizing the discursive space for reform or public participation. The findings highlight the role of media in sustaining dominant power relations through strategic linguistic and representational choices.
accommodation, constraints, dialect, idiolect, interlocutor, interpretation
Copyright (c) 2025 Lillian Kemunto Omoke https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Phonological processes involved in the adjustment of English words borrowed into EkeGusii
This paper interrogated the productivity of EkeGusii phonological processes in English words borrowed into EkeGusii, a Kenyan Bantu language. The processes under focus are: voice dissimilation, de-fricativisation, spirantisation, pre-nasalisation and homorganic assimilation and vowel height harmonisation and dis-harmonisation. Data analyzed in this article included English nouns borrowed into EkeGusii as collected from the following secondary sources: books (especially the EkeGusii Holy Bible), research papers/articles, theses, and the EkeGusii dictionary. The study drew conclusion that English phonemes not found in EkeGusii are changed to the nearest (acoustically) EkeGusii phonemes; to a large extent EkeGusii phonological rules apply to the output of the phonemic adaptations of English loans; EkeGusii adaptation processes do not differ in any significant way from the regular EkeGusii phonological processes; and finally, productivity the EkeGusii phonological processes in the English loans borrowed into EkeGusii is not as clear cut as previously thought. It is recommended that this kind of study be extended to other languages to ascertain the productivity of their phonological processes.
Adjustment, Borrowing,EkeGusii, Lending, Nativisation, phonological process, phonological productivity
Copyright (c) 2023 George Anyona https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Strategies for enhancing English language proficiency among learners in schools located in rural settings
Language represents one of the ways we convey our thoughts, emotions, and feelings. In today's globe, English is among the most widely spoken languages, and the language is taught as a second or third language in various parts of the world. English learning as a second or third is established at the primary school level and is taught until the postsecondary levels of schooling. The majority of kids in rural primary schools are deficient in English due to many factors, including a lack of experienced and qualified instructors who are conversant with current approaches and techniques of teaching, as well as a shortage of classroom resources. The goal of acquiring any language is to communicate, which means communication is impossible if one does not master the language or have the opportunity to communicate effectively. It is inevitable that language and communication are in great demand in our ever-changing environment. Language is fundamental in communication, and English is, without dispute, the most significant and widely used medium of communication on the planet. Every individual should work hard to develop effective communication skills in all languages, which constitute the most critical criteria for success in each individual's job. This journal article will dig into the many methods in which English language learners in rural regions gain vocabulary competency, as well as the tactics that their instructors in rural community schools use to raise learners' levels of proficiency.
Copyright (c) 2023 Deborah Mutua https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Analysis of Conversational Maxims Flouted to Achieve Verbal Humour in Churchill Show Stand-up Comedy Performances
Humour plays an important role in everyday human life. It created when language is used in a certain context to achieve humorous effects. There is an increased proliferation of verbal humour in stand-up comedies in Kenya recently. The local television industry has also invested in verbal humour to enhance their viewership. For this reason, Churchill Show, one of the verbal humour comedy events has captivated Kenyans in the last decade. Verbal humour is often created by flouting the Gricean conversational maxims. However, in Kenya, no study has currently examined the conversational maxims flouted by the comedians to create verbal humour in Churchill Show . Therefore, the study investigated conversational maxims flouted in Churchill Show to create verbal humour. The study relied on the Gricean cooperative principle and the principles of Relevance theory to explain the maxims flouted by stand-up comedians. The study adopted a descriptive qualitative research. The primary data of study comprised purposively selected utterances from stand-up comedy performances from 2011 to 2019 in Churchill Show. In collecting the data, the researcher applied attentive observation. Being a qualitative study, data analysis commenced during data collection. Content analyses of spoken words in the TV tape were transcribed. Classification of the data into maxims flouted was first done and discussed. The findings showed that the selected stand-up comedians flouted all the four conversational maxims in their utterances to create humour. As the comedians flout the maxims, they employed strategies such as irony, satire, self-deprecation, stereotypes and hyperbole to enhance their humour creation. The study concluded that the relevance theoretical framework is appropriate in explaining the inferential process that the audience apply in humour interpretation in order to achieve optimal relevance. The study contributes knowledge in pragmatics, especially the Grice conversational maxims and implicatures.
conversational maxims, flout, verbal humour, Churchill Show
Copyright (c) 2023 Nancy Chepkemoi, Simon Nganga, Mosol Kandagor https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
A linguistic analysis of verbal bullying expressions in selected schools in Machakos town sub-county
This paper aims at showing how speech act theory is used to account for expressions used to instigate verbal bullying among students in secondary schools. It is hewn from a main study that examined various linguistic expressions of verbal bullying and its harm on students in selected public schools in Machakos town sub-county, Kenya. The study sought to find out evidence of linguistic expressions used in verbal bullying, the forms they took and evaluation of the utterances using speech act theory; how the utterances affected the targeted students and especially if they violated the students’ rights on dignity and equal opportunity to quality education despite the child’s background. The study used a mixed methods design, where quantitative and qualitative methods were used to collect and analyze data. Out of an approximate sample of forty six public schools, purposive sampling was used to select schools based on their previous history in unrest. Due to the heterogeneous nature of the schools, the schools were stratified and categorized in two groups, that is mixed and pure girls’ and boys’ schools. Further stratification was done based on the type of school whether it was a sub county, county, extra county or national school. Students were selected randomly from each class of school to form the population of the respondents. The students were interviewed to collect data. After analysis, the previous study found out that verbal l bullying expressions such as insults, use of offensive language, threats, issuing commands among others were used by the perpetrators against the victims. Again, the study established that verbal bullying expressions had great effects on the targeted. Some reported to have felt isolated from the affiliated groups, others said they felt dejected, devalued among others.
Copyright (c) 2023 Dorothy Katunge Mutunga https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Is it always war? A study of conceptual metaphors used to refer to COVID-19 disease in the Okaz Newspaper of the United Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Pandemics have been described using metaphors from ancient times. Such metaphors enable us comprehend disease, an abstract entity, in terms of entities that are concrete. Metaphors have been extensively used in varied media to explain the COVID-19 pandemic that has swept across the globe ever since it was discovered in 2019. This study undertakes a critical analysis of conceptual metaphors used to describe COVID-19 disease in the Okaz newspaper published in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The study uses the Conceptual Integration theory by Fauconnier and Turner (2002) and Image Schema theory by Johnson (1987) to qualitatively analyze data. Steen’s (1999) Five-Step procedure aids in the identification of the metaphorical expressions. The study found out that the role conceptual metaphors play is critical. Moreover, war metaphors are inevitable and their usage is dictated by the issues that they address.
Pandemics, conceptual metaphors, entity, media, image schemas
Copyright (c) 2022 R. N. Almarshedi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
The role of multi-modal posters in curbing COVID-19 in Ghana
This study sought to investigate how the application of multimodality in COVID-19 related posters contributed to the prevention and control of the spread of the disease in Ghana. Using random sampling technique, twenty participants were interviewed on COVID-19 related posters taken from hospital environments, church premises, secondary schools and university campuses, notice boards and doors of offices, their responses were analysed and discussed. It was revealed that the colours, images, inscriptions, and the nature of the letters (the use of lowercase and uppercase letters) contributed greatly in creating meaning and understanding about the disease, its effects and its preventive measures. Depending on what the poster was intended to achieve, a particular multimodal technique tried to project some information as more crucial in the awareness creation about the disease. Again, the study revealed that, posters involving multimodal communication acted as reinforcers, reminders, prompters and checkers on people in observing the COVID-19 safety protocols. Applying multiplicity of codes in one communication channel (poster) ensured social activities, exploration of cultural, social, and societal contents and topics, and the development of social relationships which occurs through various communication channels, ranging from linguistic to visual performative expression. Thus, the study confirmed the view that multimodal and semiotic resources have great impact on representing or constructing reality through artistic practices and addressing social meanings and representations that go beyond speech.
COVID-19, Ghana, multimodality, posters, semiotic resources
Copyright (c) 2022 Raymond Amoakwah, Catherine Ekua Mensah https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Analysis of Akan compounding by using autosegmental theory
Compounding has received a great deal of discussion in Akan Phonology. Akan is a spoken language that includes, Asante, Fante, Akuapem, Bono, Wassa, Buem, Assin and many more dialects. This testifies that Akan has as many as ten dialects spoken in six regions out of ten regions in Ghana, according to Dolphyne (2006: ix) mostly as a mother tongue (L1). Out of these ten dialects three can be classified as the major dialects. Namely: Akuapem Twi, Asante Twi and Fante. These three dialects are classified as major dialects because they have primarily received appreciable amount of research attention over the years and taught in some schools in many parts of the country and they have yielded success in our educational system. Therefore, the analysis highlighted on only Asante Twi. Akan (Twi) words are not deliberately stemming only as we perceive them. The words are reduplicated, compounded and also affixes are added to them and these bring differences in Twi words. The compounding in words by using autosegmental theory is what this paper focused. The autosegmental subjected to some vowels, consonants to be deleted as we compounding the words. The data was collected in document. The analysis pinned out that there is compounding in Akan (Twi) through the use of autosegmental theory.
autosegmental, compounding, phonology, phonological processes
Copyright (c) 2022 Sarah Sarfo, James Mensah, Anna Serwaa-Nkrumah, Isaac Opoku Broni https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Perception of the effectiveness of ICT-ELT integration during the COVID-19 pandemic in English Language Classes in Ghana
The transition from face-to-face to online education during the COVID-19 pandemic has sparked the need to integrate robust and dependable Information and Communication Technology in teaching and learning. Furthermore, in recent years, ICT has emerged as the most significant instrument in the educational context. Despite the transition, only 10% of instructors in Ghana recognises the usefulness of ICT integration in teaching during and even post pandemic. It is based on these findings that this study sought to investigate instructors’ perception in ICT-ELT integration. The empirical data were gathered using a descriptive and quantitative study approach, using an online questionnaire distributed to 100 primary and secondary school teachers. The findings demonstrated that the majority of English instructors had a favorable opinion of incorporating ICT owing to its efficacy. The relevance of stakeholders and government’s assistance in fostering ICT-based teaching and learning was highlighted as quite critical in providing technical support for English instructors.
Copyright (c) 2022 Juliana Babulweri Ire https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Evaluation of grammatical properties of proverbial personal names in Dagbani
The study examined grammatical properties of proverbial personal names in Dagbani. The study utilized a qualitative research design, which is descriptive in nature. The target population for this research was participants from Dagbani speaking communities in Northern region. Specifically, Sagnarigu community, a suburb of Tamale was selected as the accessible community to carry out the study. The sample population was made up of six (6) teachers from Bagabaga Annex primary school consisting three (3) males and three (3) females. Another four (4) participants two (2) each from the Bimbilla and Wulensi and then six (6) from Sanarigu community who were parents of pupils with personal names in Dagbani identified from the school’s register were also consulted. Documentation and interviews were used as data collection instruments. Proverbial personal names were analysed in relation to sentence structure and function. The names were analysed into simple and compound sentences which function as interrogatives, imperatives and declaratives or statements. The study shows that the constituents of some Dagbani proverbial personal names are made up of different grammatical categories, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
Dagbani, grammatical categories, sentence structure, simple sentences, verbs.
Copyright (c) 2021 Abdul Rahaman Musah https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Problems and attitudes towards English relative clauses: A study of postgraduate Nigerian students of English
The paper examined the problems and attitudes of postgraduate Nigerian students of English towards relative clauses. The motivation for the study stems from the frequent errors committed by some Nigerian learners of English in the use of relative pronouns in forming relative clauses and especially in the formation of complex relative clauses, that is, relative pronouns preceded by prepositions (P + RP). Postgraduate students across five universities in Nigeria were used as subjects. The choice of this group is because they are expected at this stage to demonstrate an appreciable level of competence in English grammar having studied English at undergraduate level. One hundred subjects were purposively selected; twenty from each university. The data for analysis was collected using sentence combination task (SCT). The data collected was analysed using the simple percentage statistical method. The data analysed reveal that the subjects have difficulty with relative clauses. They encounter challenges ranging from wrong choice of relative pronouns and wrong ordering/positioning of relative pronouns to inability to form good relative clauses especially complex relative clauses using P + PR. The study also discovers that the subjects adopt the avoidance strategy attitude towards relative clauses.
attitude, avoidance, postgraduate, relativization/relative Clauses, SCT
Copyright (c) 2021 Innocent Nasuk Dajang https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Pragmatic investigation of the language of Schizophrenics
Jonathan Fine posits that there is a widespread understanding among psychiatric clinicians that languageis integral to the diagnosis and treatment of many psychiatric disorders. Yet clinicians may lack a language to talk about language, which limits them to the application of linguistic intuitions in their assessment of mental illness (37). It is against this backdrop that the present study aims to investigate the language of schizophrenics from the point of view of pragmatics- language in use. One of the specific objectives is to subject clinical data to existing pragmatic principles and theories in order to ascertain the viability of such pragmatic tools. The study collects data qualitatively from two schizophrenic patients at the Jos University Teaching Hospital,after obtaining an ethical clearance and by purposive sampling, draws utterances that serve as data for the analysis. The work adopts speech act theory as its theoretical framework The research found that since schizophrenia is highly characterized by disordered thought patterns which reflects in actual conversation, the phenomenon becomes highly problematic as intention attribution is hampered. The study concludes that, for a better understanding of the language use of schizophrenics and its implication for pragmatic studies, interlocutors must devise means by which they can share in the context of the schizophrenics and their unique worldview. This study is significant as it adopts an interdisciplinary approach to further open up the dialogue between medicine and the humanities.
pragmatics, schizophrenics, speech act theory
Copyright (c) 2021 Blessing Vou Dakat https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Encoding experiencers in the proverbs of Nigerian English
This study investigates how Experiencers are encoded in the proverbs of Nigerian English. There are participants in different discourse situations who play common roles one of which is the experiencer. Blake (1994:68) notes that there are no agreed criteria and there is certainly no agreed consensus on the universal inventory. Semantic roles are useful for identifying various subclasses of verbs and occasionally are reflected by individual morphemes in natural languages. Experiencer is an entity that receives a sensory impression, but does not control the event or perform it on purpose in a discourse: Samson saw the snake, Janet liked the ring, James is sick, are examples of Experiencers in English. The study draws data from Jowitt (2005:145-6) where proverbs were categorized into groups namely: those that Nigerian English (NE) shares with Standard English (SE) and those which appear to be peculiar to Nigeria or which are at least not found in British English (BE). The study found out that like in Yoruba and other Nigerian Languages, Experiencers are encoded as subjects, possessors within a subject and as objects.
encoding, experiencers, Nigerian English, proverbs, participant roles
Copyright (c) 2021 Mary Daniel Nimram, Daniel Nanlir Nimram https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
ATR harmony in English borrowed words in Ng’aturukana: An optimality theory account
Ng’aturukana, a language spoken by the Turkana people of North Western Kenya, gets into contact with English through trade, education, among other fields. As a consequence, the borrowed words have to be assimilated, especially through vowel harmony to befit Ng’aturukana. Vowel harmony which was observed to be bidirectional (both progressive and regressive) under the rule-based Generative Phonology was problematic in rule ordering. Optimality Theory was the better option to account for the vowel harmony phenomenon noted in this paper. From the analyses, this paper reports three outcomes of Vowel Harmony in the borrowed words; firstly, regressive sharing of ATR feature was observed in situations where the root or suffixes ATR feature was stronger than the preceding root vowels. Secondly, both progressive and regressive ATR harmony simultaneously occur in situations where the root ATR was stronger than the preceding and following roots vowels. Lastly, some vowels manifested opacity where regressive ATR was blocked from spreading to the preceding vowels.
Language Contact, Ng’aturukana, Borrowing, ATR Harmony, Alignment, constraints
Copyright (c) 2021 Tioko Celestine Nkieny, Henry Simiyu Nandelenga, David Barasa https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Wordplay and its interpersonal function in marked parodistic mimicking in Kirundi “Ni Nde?” plays
Parodistic mimicking (PAMI), an expression of the speaker’s disgust at the imitated utterance, is an implicit metapragmatic comment (MPC). MPCs are in essence a means of defending norms, particularly communicative norms. Moreover, the norm of parody is that the characteristic style of a speaker is imitated the way it is. However, MPCs realized as PAMI which involves wordplay tend to offend norms, be it the norm concerning parody or the conversational norms like the Cooperative Principle (CP) and the politeness maxims. Such MPCs which violate norms are ‘marked’ from the perspective of norms. One wonders what interpersonal meanings these marked choices in PAMI convey, given that interpersonal relations lie at the heart of metacommunication. This study is within the area of pragmatics, with its concern of social, interpersonal meanings associated with language use. It sought to explore the communicative effect of wordplay in marked MPCs realized as PAMI as far as interpersonal relations are concerned. Data for this qualitative study were collected from Kirundi fictional conversations in Kirundi “Ni nde?” plays. Purposive sampling was used to collect the data which display different types of wordplay in different interactional contexts. To analyze the data, a conceptual framework informed mainly by Myers-Scotton’s (1998) Markedness Model (MM) was used. Findings suggest that various kinds of wordplay, namely phonetic play, the use of onomatopoeia, and word substitution are used by speakers in the verbal act of parodistic mimicking. The marked MPCs imply that the contribution of the imitated participant is evaluated as nonsense talk or inappropriate speech behavior. These MPCs cause a readjustment of interpersonal relations between interactants at the moment of communication. This study contributes to the validation of the MM as a suitable model to analyze deviant, marked uses of language in pragmatics or discourse studies.
wordplay, parodistic mimicking, metacommunication, metapragmatics, normative markedness
Copyright (c) 2021 Jean Bosco https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Effects of selected phonological processes on consonant clusters of Tshivenḓa
The study presents explanation on the effects of selected phonological processes on consonant clusters of Tshivenḓa. This is a qualitative study and the researcher adopted a descriptive research design, a pure research paradigm which branched to exploratory interpretive and the optimality theoretical framework to note the possible constraints of phonological processes in Tshivenḓa. The study’s population target are the Venḓa speaking people by whom a sample of ten speakers was selected. It is noted from the findings that the selected phonological processes are de-nasalisation, de-aspiration, fortisation, labialization and vowel epenthesis. These phonological processes are the cause of consonant cluster formation, consonant cluster reduction and consonant cluster simplification. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) was used for data analysis together with the Optimality Theory.
phonological processes, fortisation, de-nasalisation, de-aspiration, vowel epenthesis, labialization, consonant cluster formation, consonant cluster reduction and consonant cluster simplification.
Copyright (c) 2021 Abednico Nyoni https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Dagara proximal and distal demonstratives
The paper sought to investigate Dagara’s proximal and distal demonstratives. Using elicitation strategies and Basic Linguistic Theory (BLT), it was revealed that, Dagara demonstratives chiefly co-occur with definite articles, the demonstrative and the noun as one constituent, and sometimes includes focal marker in the environment of tenses and aspects. The paper further argues that, apart from pronominal demonstratives, the omission of a definite article would thwart the manifestation of the reference (demonstration) in Dagara communication.
Copyright (c) 2021 Raymond Amoakwah https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Representation of Culture in ELT Textbooks: A Qualitative Study
The main objective of this qualitative research is to explore commodiously the values of the culture that are: creativity, discipline, diversity, hard-working, mutual help, fighting spirit, equality, beauty, generosity, alignment, honesty, independence, prestige, individuality, caring, proud and belief in course books of English taught in the Allied schools – a project of Punjab Group of Colleges. The aim and objective of the study are to explore cultural values in the English language the textbooks taught in Pakistani schools. The investigator used the content inquiry method to analyze data thoroughly, explain about the values of a culture. The sample of the study is Oxford Progressive for the grade 6th, 7th, and 8th. The data will be collected from the grade 6th, 7th, and 8th The logic behind the selection of students at the middle level because they are easily overwhelmed by negative impressions of the foreign culture. The results of the research will be effectiven developing cross-cultural communication, at the same; the present investigation will save English language learners the negative influence of other cultures.
Culture, ELT textbooks, content analysis, cultural values, language.
Copyright (c) 2021 Umar Farooq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Language, gender and power: Lexicalisation of women in the national assembly and other top political posts in Kenya (2013-2017)
This paper examines, from a linguistic perspective, the lexicalisation of the Kenya National Assembly women politicians and women in other top political posts by newspaper opinion articles. Every instance of language is a reflection of the prevailing discursive and ideological systems in the society in which it is used. The use of language, and specifically, the lexical items, may therefore explain the power and gender inequalities in Kenyan’s National Assembly. The number of elected women in the National Assembly of Kenya falls short of the 30 percent 2010 requirement spelled in the 2010 Kenya Constitution. The objective of this paper is to describe how the lexical items used in newspaper opinion articles construct National Assembly women politicians and women in other top political posts in Kenya from 2013 to 2017. The paper uses Fairclough’s (2001) social-cultural and Van Dijk’s (2001) social-cognitive approaches to Critical Discourse Analysis. Being a qualitative research, data was collected through document reviews. The findings reveal that newspaper opinion articles utilize ideologically managed lexical items that construct women in the discourses of gender. The study concludes that the ideological management of language by the newspaper opinion articles is likely to curtail the political ambitions of women politicians in Kenya.
Copyright (c) 2021 Norah Atambo, Emily Ogutu, Elizaphan Kiguru https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Reduplications in the Tiv Grammar: Classifications and Functions
The repetition of phonemes, syllables and words is a natural process that has its role in the study of Tiv language. This study focuses on the morphological repetition that is popularly known as reduplication. Reduplication is a morphological process in which a base or stem is copied or repeated. The repeated stems are called the reduplicants and these reduplicants are either wholly copied or partially repeated. The ones that are fully reduplicated are referred to as full reduplications while the partially reproduced reduplicants are labelled partial reduplications. This paper therefore is premised on the following objectives: to classify Tiv reduplications; to differentiate between reduplications and triplications in the Tiv morphology; to compare reduplication and compounding; and to state the functions of reduplications in the Tiv morphology. It adopted Inkelas and Zoll’s (2005) The Morphological Doubling Theory (MDT) in this paper. Observation-participation methodology for the elicitation of data. It has been discovered that reduplication has both morphological and phonological features. Reduplications in Tiv have been trichotomised based on the structures, word-classes and functions. Linguists or scholars should read Tiv literatures to discover the beauty of reduplications in the Tiv language.
Copyright (c) 2020 Aor Terfa https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Structure and segmentation in paragraphing: A case study of Mount Mary College of Education, Ghana
Apart from teaching listening, speaking and reading skills, one of the main goals of teaching English Language is to develop the writing skills of students (Rao, 2019). This study examined how Mount Mary College of Education students write paragraphs in their essays. A total of 160 student-teachers forming 21.14% of a target population of 757 were used for the research. These student-teachers were made to write expository essays which served as the main data collection instrument besides tutor interviews and focus group interviews for the student-teachers. The Essay Analytical Framework (EAF) of Owusu (2012) was used for the analyses. The findings of the study showed that although most of the student-teachers wrote and developed their paragraphs they encountered myriads of challenges in paragraphing the introductory, the body and the concluding paragraphs which confirmed the need for the research. Parents, guardians and the government as a whole will reap the benefits of this investigation. Parents would be informed about the curriculum that their children are imbibing as well as the kind of learning resources to acquire for them. The government would equally be equipped with the necessary information about how to initiate, plan, and supervise implementation of policies in relation to education, specifically writing.
Copyright (c) 2020 Benjamin Kofi Salakpi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
This paper examines the focus strategies in Akan, a Kwa language of the Niger-Congo family, within the framework of the Minimalist Programme (MP). The aim is to revisit the two focus strategies in Akan (i.e., ex-situ and in-situ focus strategies). Akan focus constructions have received considerable attention in the extant literature; however, none of these works paid particular attention to the in-situ focus strategy attested in the language. Also, linguists working on Akan focus constructions hardly agree on what the focus markers in the language are. The data for the study were collected through introspective approach and informant method. With ample and illuminating data, the study revealed that both the in-situ and ex-situ focus strategies are attested in Akan. In addition, it was established that the particles nà, né, and á can be considered as the real focus markers in Akan. However, the particle dèɛ̀ cannot be considered as a focus marker, contrary to the claims by some of the linguists working on Akan focus constructions (see, for instance, Boadi, 1974; Saah, 1998; Marfo, 2005). Keywords: Akan, focus strategies, in-situ, ex-situ, focus markers, the Minimalist Programme
Akan, focus strategies, in-situ, ex-situ, focus markers, the Minimalist Programme
Copyright (c) 2021 Kofi Busia Abrefa, Dr. Sanusi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Do Akans eat almost everything? Clarifying the word sense multiplicity of the Akan verb “di”
This paper has explored the multiple meanings of the Akan verb di. It has emphasized the homonyms and their polysemes as well as the extended meanings that have emerged from each basic sense. The morphological structure and syntactic properties of the various senses has also been considered in order to bring out how grammatical structure affects the realization of meaning. Data was collected from both primary and secondary sources. Primarily, speeches, conversations and songs were recorded and transcribed to solicit occurrences and usages of the verb. Secondary data was collected from novels, bibles, dictionaries, lexicons and grammars that are written in Akan. Published dates of these books were between 1969 and 2004 so that there could be a diachronic comparison of the usage of the verb over the years. Through descriptive analysis, this paper has established that the verb di in Akan does not always denote “to eat” or “to have sex”. Other denotations such as “to converse”, “to be in a situation”, “to perform and activity”, “to work” and many more are identified and dichotomized by their distinct syntactic structures and morphological orientations. Their synonyms have also been brought to light to support the distinctiveness of each sense of the verb.
Copyright (c) 2021 JULIET OPPONG-ASARE ANSAH, YAW SEKYI BAIDOO, KOFI BUSIA ABREFA https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Sociolinguistic variables involved in making requests among the Anlos
The purpose of this study is to investigate different sociolinguistic variables involved in making requests found among Anlo conversational participants in natural settings. The study employs qualitative research design. The population for this study is from three out of the thirty-six indigenous Anlo towns. In all, thirty-six respondents made up of children (aged between 9 and 14 years), youth (aged between 15 and 39 years) and the elderly (aged from 40 years and above) were selected from the three sites. The data collection instruments used for this study are observation, interview, role play and the use of discourse completion tests (D.C.Ts). From the discussions above, it can be seen that socio-linguistic variables of GRAPD are very necessary and are given much consideration when request is to be performed in Anlo. The analysis revealed that both the requester and the requestee consider the Gender, Rank, Age, Power or Distance that exists between them (the interlocutors). All these social variables affect request making in one way or the other among the Anlos. It is the social variables that the requester considers before making his or her request. The requestee also considers these social variables before considering granting or refusing the request.
Copyright (c) 2020 Calvin Mawuli Attricki, Agbemor Kwami Akpeleasi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Towards a cross-curricular awareness for ESL teachers in Cameroon
The effective teaching of English as a Second Language in a nonnative context such as Cameroon requires, amongst other things, the use or simulation of real-life situations in the classroom. Some of these real-life situations tend to issue from other subjects on the curriculum, a fact which necessitates cross-curricular awareness on the part of teachers of English. The goal of this study was, first, to account for the extent to which content from other subjects feature in the official English language coursebook used in secondary schools in Cameroon, and second, to establish the importance teachers of English attach to possessing knowledge across the curricular, as well as their readiness to teach English through content availed in other subjects. The thematic analyses of the corpus and a computation of the survey responses, revealed that the real-life situations explored in the different modules in the coursebooks are traceable to 9 (75%) subjects on the curriculum. Also, though most of the English language teachers surveyed acknowledge the importance of cross-curricular awareness, their readiness to teach English through content is limited to arts-inclined content. We recommend the institution of a cross-curricular awareness benchmark for teachers of English.
cross-curricular awareness, content and language integrated learning, content-based instruction, the competency-based approach
Posture verbs in Ewe: A Cross-linguistic overview
According to Ameka and Levinson (2007), poster verbs are the prototypical verbs which define a language type, namely, the type in which a small set of contrastive verbs occur in locative constructions. This study, however, looked at posture verbs in Ewe, especially on how the Ewe people describe location of entities. Mixed designs methods were used in the data collection, these include interviews and observation. Four students taking Ewe as their elective course were chosen purposively for the study. After going through series of activities with the participants, 36 verbs were identified as posture verbs in Ewe. The findings showed that almost all the verbs identify as posture verbs appear with objects, preposition and post position in sentences. This means that posture verbs cannot do without them. It was also realized that different posture verbs can have the same meaning while the same verbs can also have different meaning unless they are put into context before their differences can be shown clearly.
Copyright (c) 2020 Beauty Patience Addo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0
Phonological Analysis of Fish Naming with Particular Reference to Akans in Ghana
This paper analyzed the phonological processes in fish naming in Akan context on vowel harmony, assimilation and syllable structure. A lot of people have issues with fish naming. The objective of this paper was to do away with misconceptions about fish naming in Akans on phonological processes. These phonological processes were examined within the autosegmental theory framework. Both secondary and primary sources were used as a method of elicited data. In all, one hundred and twenty (120) fish mongers with aged ranging between twenty five (25) to sixty two (62) were interviewed. The information gathered were than transcribed and components needed for the analysis were used. Finally, it was established that fish naming dully conformed to the phonological processes below; vowel harmony, assimilation and syllable structure. The paper also identified that though there was correlation, with regards to vowel harmony, not all the names obeyed the surface representation of vowel harmony rule. The analysis confirmed that, syllable structure plays a significant role in the fish naming in the world in general and Ghana in particular.
assimilation, harmony, phonological, processes, segment, syllable
Copyright (c) 2020 Adu David Tuffour, Adu Joseph, Felicia Asamoah-Poku
Semantic Analysis of Silence in Conversational Discourse
Silence in conversations semantically carries varied interpretations. Since silence is a component of discontinuity in speech, it arises relatively rarely in confrontational discourse that is distinguished by continuous speaking flow and rapid turn-taking. A good conversation should involve back-channel support from the receiver. In some instances, especially during conversations, be it interrogation, peer discussion or formal interaction, one party may relent in responding to an ongoing discussion. Once this happens, the speaker is demotivated to continue and many thoughts begin to run through the mind of the speaker. However, it is especially evident when it happens, and may signify either an expression of control or an absence of control. The work focuses on pauses and differences, analyzes their power roles encrypted in silence. The study adopted a desktop literature review method (desk study). This study further used a behavioral approach while researching and writing this essay, which would involve evaluating the meaning embedded in a silence by considering the environment and the situation at hand in that very moment. The drawing and interpretation of observations and sense which is not a quantitative impact evaluation, was important in this context.
conversational analysis, conversational discourse, silence, semanticity, silence message
Copyright (c) 2020 Alberta Aseye Ama Duhoe, Ebenezer Giddi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0