Polite Requests in Non-native Varieties of English: The Case of Ghanian English

Although several studies have been carried out on the theory of politeness,the definition of this notion varies among linguists and according to languagesand cultures: what is polite and socially appropriate in one context or culturemay be considered impolite or excessively polite in another. Further, rules ofpoliteness may be transferred from a first language to a second language bylearners who maintain hybridized usage due to these transfers. In this articlewe demonstrate the maintenance of some of these transfers in politeness strate.gies in Ghanaian English. This variety is influenced by the cultural norms ofpoliteness of some Ghanaian languages whose speakers fuse native speakerconventions with English politeness conventions. We discuss herein some hybridizedforms that result from cultural transfers from one Ghanaian language,Akan

Lexical inventiveness in Ghanaian socio-political discourse: The form, meaning and motivation for dumsor and dumsor-based neologisms

Lexical expansion may be triggered by different factors. A recent case of protracted intermittent power outages in Ghana gave rise to dumsor, an Akan word which means 'turn off' and 'turn on'. This word spawned many neologisms, some of which became part of the political discourse in Ghana at the time. However, very few of the neologisms are actually in use because the situation that gave rise to them no longer exists and the formation of most of them was purely jocular. Based on data collected from Facebook posts and status updates, this paper discusses what is called the dumsor lexicon and the morphological and sociolinguistic motivations for the formation of the dumsor-based neologisms. First, we observe that the motivation for the linguistic behaviour that spawns such neologisms is consistent with the lightheartedness of Ghanaians. We show that the neologisms fall into various semantic classes and that the morphological processes of compounding and affixation are employed predominantly but dumsor itself is partially anglicized and the affixes employed in the derivation of the neologisms are of English origin, because Akan, from which dumsor emanates, lacks equivalent affixes. Additionally, we observe that the use of English affixes could be because the originators of the neologisms either did not know alternative processes in Akan that could yield the same result or possibly did not find them useful because of the multilingual setting of the platform. Thus, we argue that the morphology of the neologisms and the range of items and concept they refer to betray the possible social backgrounds of the originators of the words and the multilingual setting of the linguistic behaviour

‘Bra, Sɛn, Yɛnkↄ... That is All I Know in Akan’: How Female Migrants From Rural North Survive with Minimum Bilingualism in Urban Markets in Ghana

In this paper, we explore the language-migration nexus among female migrants, Kayayei, in three urban markets in Accra, Ghana. We assume in this paper that first time migrants from northern Ghana will face lin-guistic challenges in these markets because the linguistic situation in ur-ban centres in Ghana is very diverse and complex. Typically, first time migrants from northern Ghana may hardly speak the major languages that are spoken in Accra: Ga, Akan, Ewe and English. Nevertheless, they have to learn to negotiate fees with the clients (whose luggage they carry) as well as tax officers who chase them all over the market to collect the daily income taxes from them. How do the migrants cope in such com-plex linguistic situation of the host community? What strategies do these migrants resort to in coping with the linguistic challenges they face in their new (host) communities? We investigate the linguistic challenges that migrants face in their new environment, and identify the coping strategies the migrants employ to meet these linguistics challenges. We first identify the dominant language(s) of the markets to see if it is/they are indeed different from the languages spoken by the migrants. We then examine the language (s) migrants select for business transactions in these markets. Finally, we attempt to evaluate the level of competence the migrants have in the selected language for business and explore why migrants choose to do business in the particular language (s) irrespective of their level of competence in the selected language. Our investigation revealed Akan as the dominant language of all three markets. It also re-vealed that very minimum linguistic exchange is required in the line of business of the Kayayei. This implies that very little linguistic knowledge in the market language may be sufficient to conduct business in their line of business. Incipient bilingualism, learning the appropriate registers (key vocabulary) needed to transact business in the markets, emerged as the most employed coping strategy among the migrants

A linguistic landscape of the central business district of Accra

Using the mixed method research approach, this study investigated the linguistic landscape of the central business district of Accra, Ghana. The study employed both the Ethnolinguistic Vitality Theory (EV) and the Place Semiotics Theory to explore the types of signage displayed by shop owners in the Makola market, the languages used on these signs, the dominant language(s) on the signs and how the use of language reflects the ethnolinguistic vitality of the local languages used in Accra. The findings present a very busy linguistic landscape where shop owners use the names of their companies and the products they sell as a marketing strategy through a variety of modes including signboards, billboards, taglines, and signposts to attract customers. There was also a preponderance of English in the linguistic landscape of Accra, which establishes English as a powerful tool for inter-ethnic communication and national integration, giving an implicit impression of low vitality of indigenous languages in the space

The Goof, the Bad and the Ugly: "Indecent" Language Use on Ghanaian Radio

Free speech and media freedoms were reinforced in Ghana with the repeal of the Criminal Libel Law in 2001. As a result, the citizen’s voice, which was hitherto muted, has grown louder as Ghanaians feel emboldened to contribute to national discourse in the media (especially local language radio programmes) without fear of the Criminal Libel Law. However, concerns have been raised about indecent language which has become pervasive in the Ghanaian media. This study examined indecent language on radio in Ghana. The study adopted the quantitative approach and analysed content data gathered from selected Ghanaian radio stations from May, 2016 to September, 2016. This was the period just before the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections in Ghana. The study revealed six types of indecent language on Ghanaian radio and noted that insults and offensive comments ranked the highest, while expressions promoting divisiveness ranked lowest.&nbsp

Face-attack in Political Discussions on Radio in the Context of Ghana’s 2016 Electioneering Period

We examined insulting and offensive comments made by political actors and party sympathizers on radio as recorded by the Media Foundation for West Africa in the 2016 electioneering period in Ghana. Using the concepts of face and face attack, we found that rival politicians, members/affiliates of political parties and even journalists were attacked through face-threatening acts which include the use of name-calling expressions and derogatory adjectives. We identified face-attacking expressions in the form of attack on moral behaviour, attack on intellectual/mental ability, and attack on physical appearance/characteristics. As suggested by previous studies, face attacks block the free exchange of critical ideas which play a very important role in the development of democratic countries as many citizens would not want to get involved in discussions that threaten their self-image. We, therefore, recommend that political actors in Ghana desist from disrespecting people of divergent political backgrounds or persuasions and rather focus on substantive issues in their public speeches