Evershed Kwasi Amuzu
Biographic Data
| ID | 5889798 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Evershed Kwasi Amuzu |
| GIVEN NAMES | Evershed Kwasi |
| FAMILY NAME | Amuzu |
| SIGNATURE | AMUZU E K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Ghana |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9955-0202 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2005 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Greetings as a linguistic routine among the people of Larteh in Ghana
Ethnopragmatic and sociolinguistic interpretation of death-announcing euphemisms in Ewe
This article explores how the Ewe culture infl uences death-announcing euphemisms and attempts to establish how widely speakers know the contexts of their use. It scrutinises two sets of data: qualitative data analysed using ethnopragmatic lenses to describe the expressions and their typical contexts of use and quantitative data analysed withinthe Variationist Sociolinguistic Approach. The study has found that while some expressions are popular, …
Culturally bound abusive expressions in Ghanaian social media
Language Contact in Santrokofi, a Ghana-Togo Mountain Language Community: Impact on Selee
The present study examines the language contact situation in Santrokofi, in Ghana, where Selee, a Ghana-Togo Mountain language, enjoys a good degree of maintenance although it is in triglossic contact with Ewe, Akan, and English. With insight from the triglossic structure model, we collected and analysed quantitative and qualitative data which revealed that Selee is the natives’ ingroup language while Ewe (and to a limited extent, Akan) is their …
Sociophonetics of [r] in Akan
The study interrogates what has hitherto been called ‘free variation’ in Akan (cf. Schachter and Fromkin (1968), Dolphyne (1988), and Abakah (2004)), i.e., the alternation of [r], [l] and [d] in intervocalic position (V_V) and the alternation of [r] and [l] at the second consonant (C2) position of a CCV syllable structure in various dialects of the language. The study follows the quantitative sociolinguistic approach pioneered by Labov (1966) to …
Dialectal variation in lexical borrowings in Dangme
language spoken in Southern Ghana. Dangme has seven dialects (Ada, Gbugblaa, Yilɔ Krobo, Manya Krobo, Nugo, Sɛ and Osudoku), but this study concerns lexical borrowings into the first four. The language is in contact with four languages from which it has borrowed: Ewe, Ga, Akan, and English. Each dialect of Dangme is in direct contact with English, the official language of Ghana, and with at least one of the three Ghanaian languages. While Ada is …
“That’s not my understanding”: Interpretation in the Ghanaian multilingual court
This study investigates the extent to which mostly untrained interpreters render accurately the voices of participants in Ghanaian district courts, and how the participants orient to shortcomings in the interpretations. Based on 7.5 hours of audio-recordings, we found that 91% of interpretations were accurate. The 9% of interpretations that were inaccurate were of five types: non-equivalence in propositional content, omissions, elaborations, inco…
Multilingualism and language practices of Nigerien migrants in Ghana
This paper aims at examining language socialisation practices of members of two groups of migrants of Nigerien origin living in Ghana, i.e. Tamasheque-speaking beggars in Accra and Hausa/Zambarima/Buzu-speaking hawkers at the Akuapem Ridge. We examine the migrants’ language practices in various domains, such as work and home, interrogate whether such practices reflect the level of socioeconomic integration they experience and ascertain the role t…
Look me, hwε ha, ofainε kwεmɔ biε aha mi fioo!!”: Codeswitching at inter-ethnic traditional marriage ceremonies in southern Ghana
This paper investigates the use of codeswitching at traditional inter-ethnic marriage ceremonies in the southern part of Ghana. The study site is Accra, the multilingual capital of Ghana which is located in the south of the country, and was selected due to the high frequency of inter-ethnic marriage ceremonies which take place there. The data analysed were audio-visual recordings of interactions at such ceremonies, collected, by (Nuworsu, Anastas…
Codeswitching in West Africa
This introduction to the International Journal of Bilingualism special issue on “Codeswitching in West Africa” is divided into three parts. The first part presents an overview of West Africa, with particular attention paid to the linguistic diversity and multilingualism that characterize the region. Multilingualism in the region obtains at both the societal and the individual level: as Dakubu ((1997). Korle meets the sea: A sociolinguistic histor…
Producing composite codeswitching: The role of the modularity of language production
The basic characteristic of composite codeswitching is that the languages involved share responsibility for framing bilingual constituents. This paper points to evidence of this characteristic in the nature of morpheme distribution in mixed possessive constructions in Ewe–English codeswitching, spoken in Ghana. An Ewe semantic distinction between two types of possessive constructions is consistently neutralized when English possessum nominals are…
A Comparative Study of Bilingual Verb Phrases in Ewe-English and Gengbe-French Codeswitching
This article describes contact phenomena between two closely related varieties of the Gbe language cluster Ewe and Gengbe each with a Germanic and a Romance language. The focus is on a comparison of verb phrases in Ewe-English codeswitching, spoken in Ghana, and Gengbe-French codeswitching, spoken in Togo. It is the first qualitative comparative study of this kind although quite a number of local (West African) languages are in contact with Engli…
Bilingual serial verb constructions: A comparative study of Ewe-English and Ewe-French codeswitching
Revisiting the Classic Codeswitching–Composite Codeswitching Distinction: A Case Study of Nonverbal Predication in Ewe–English Codeswitching
This paper concerns the distribution of English-origin nonverbal predicative elements in mixed constructions in Ewe–English codeswitching. It assumes Myers-Scotton's ideas of Matrix Language (ML) and confronts the question What is the ML in the mixed constructions? In an attempt to answer this question, the paper explores two types of ML hypothesis: Ewe-only ML hypothesis and a composite ML hypothesis. The two hypotheses share common assumptions …
Multilingualism and language practices of Nigerien migrants in Ghana
This paper aims at examining language socialisation practices of members of two groups of migrants of Nigerien origin living in Ghana, i.e. Tamasheque-speaking beggars in Accra and Hausa/Zambarima/Buzu-speaking hawkers at the Akuapem Ridge. We examine the migrants’ language practices in various domains, such as work and home, interrogate whether such practices reflect the level of socioeconomic integration they experience and ascertain the role t…
Bilingual serial verb constructions: A comparative study of Ewe-English and Ewe-French codeswitching
Revisiting the Classic Codeswitching–Composite Codeswitching Distinction: A Case Study of Nonverbal Predication in Ewe–English Codeswitching
This paper concerns the distribution of English-origin nonverbal predicative elements in mixed constructions in Ewe–English codeswitching. It assumes Myers-Scotton's ideas of Matrix Language (ML) and confronts the question What is the ML in the mixed constructions? In an attempt to answer this question, the paper explores two types of ML hypothesis: Ewe-only ML hypothesis and a composite ML hypothesis. The two hypotheses share common assumptions …
Revisiting the Classic Codeswitching–Composite Codeswitching Distinction: A Case Study of Nonverbal Predication in Ewe–English Codeswitching
This paper concerns the distribution of English-origin nonverbal predicative elements in mixed constructions in Ewe–English codeswitching. It assumes Myers-Scotton's ideas of Matrix Language (ML) and confronts the question What is the ML in the mixed constructions? In an attempt to answer this question, the paper explores two types of ML hypothesis: Ewe-only ML hypothesis and a composite ML hypothesis. The two hypotheses share common assumptions …
Bilingual serial verb constructions: A comparative study of Ewe-English and Ewe-French codeswitching
Codeswitching in West Africa
This introduction to the International Journal of Bilingualism special issue on “Codeswitching in West Africa” is divided into three parts. The first part presents an overview of West Africa, with particular attention paid to the linguistic diversity and multilingualism that characterize the region. Multilingualism in the region obtains at both the societal and the individual level: as Dakubu ((1997). Korle meets the sea: A sociolinguistic histor…
Producing composite codeswitching: The role of the modularity of language production
The basic characteristic of composite codeswitching is that the languages involved share responsibility for framing bilingual constituents. This paper points to evidence of this characteristic in the nature of morpheme distribution in mixed possessive constructions in Ewe–English codeswitching, spoken in Ghana. An Ewe semantic distinction between two types of possessive constructions is consistently neutralized when English possessum nominals are…
A Comparative Study of Bilingual Verb Phrases in Ewe-English and Gengbe-French Codeswitching
This article describes contact phenomena between two closely related varieties of the Gbe language cluster Ewe and Gengbe each with a Germanic and a Romance language. The focus is on a comparison of verb phrases in Ewe-English codeswitching, spoken in Ghana, and Gengbe-French codeswitching, spoken in Togo. It is the first qualitative comparative study of this kind although quite a number of local (West African) languages are in contact with Engli…
Multilingualism and language practices of Nigerien migrants in Ghana
This paper aims at examining language socialisation practices of members of two groups of migrants of Nigerien origin living in Ghana, i.e. Tamasheque-speaking beggars in Accra and Hausa/Zambarima/Buzu-speaking hawkers at the Akuapem Ridge. We examine the migrants’ language practices in various domains, such as work and home, interrogate whether such practices reflect the level of socioeconomic integration they experience and ascertain the role t…
Look me, hwε ha, ofainε kwεmɔ biε aha mi fioo!!”: Codeswitching at inter-ethnic traditional marriage ceremonies in southern Ghana
This paper investigates the use of codeswitching at traditional inter-ethnic marriage ceremonies in the southern part of Ghana. The study site is Accra, the multilingual capital of Ghana which is located in the south of the country, and was selected due to the high frequency of inter-ethnic marriage ceremonies which take place there. The data analysed were audio-visual recordings of interactions at such ceremonies, collected, by (Nuworsu, Anastas…
“That’s not my understanding”: Interpretation in the Ghanaian multilingual court
This study investigates the extent to which mostly untrained interpreters render accurately the voices of participants in Ghanaian district courts, and how the participants orient to shortcomings in the interpretations. Based on 7.5 hours of audio-recordings, we found that 91% of interpretations were accurate. The 9% of interpretations that were inaccurate were of five types: non-equivalence in propositional content, omissions, elaborations, inco…
Dialectal variation in lexical borrowings in Dangme
language spoken in Southern Ghana. Dangme has seven dialects (Ada, Gbugblaa, Yilɔ Krobo, Manya Krobo, Nugo, Sɛ and Osudoku), but this study concerns lexical borrowings into the first four. The language is in contact with four languages from which it has borrowed: Ewe, Ga, Akan, and English. Each dialect of Dangme is in direct contact with English, the official language of Ghana, and with at least one of the three Ghanaian languages. While Ada is …
Sociophonetics of [r] in Akan
The study interrogates what has hitherto been called ‘free variation’ in Akan (cf. Schachter and Fromkin (1968), Dolphyne (1988), and Abakah (2004)), i.e., the alternation of [r], [l] and [d] in intervocalic position (V_V) and the alternation of [r] and [l] at the second consonant (C2) position of a CCV syllable structure in various dialects of the language. The study follows the quantitative sociolinguistic approach pioneered by Labov (1966) to …
Language Contact in Santrokofi, a Ghana-Togo Mountain Language Community: Impact on Selee
The present study examines the language contact situation in Santrokofi, in Ghana, where Selee, a Ghana-Togo Mountain language, enjoys a good degree of maintenance although it is in triglossic contact with Ewe, Akan, and English. With insight from the triglossic structure model, we collected and analysed quantitative and qualitative data which revealed that Selee is the natives’ ingroup language while Ewe (and to a limited extent, Akan) is their …
Ethnopragmatic and sociolinguistic interpretation of death-announcing euphemisms in Ewe
This article explores how the Ewe culture infl uences death-announcing euphemisms and attempts to establish how widely speakers know the contexts of their use. It scrutinises two sets of data: qualitative data analysed using ethnopragmatic lenses to describe the expressions and their typical contexts of use and quantitative data analysed withinthe Variationist Sociolinguistic Approach. The study has found that while some expressions are popular, …
Culturally bound abusive expressions in Ghanaian social media
Greetings as a linguistic routine among the people of Larteh in Ghana
Linguistics (10 works) · Multilingual Education and Policy (9 works) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (8 works) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (7 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Psychology (5 works) · Second Language Learning and Teaching (4 works) · Computer Science (3 works) · History (3 works)