Language choice and institutional identity: a study of the mottos of Ghanaian educational institutions

Akoto, Osei Yaw

doi:10.1080/00437956.2018.1490421

Cited by 7 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 15 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Ellis and Ure (1982) suggested a high-low model of languages, where high, middle and low correlates with English only, English-Ghanaian language mixed and Ghanaian language only (Owusu-Ansah 1997). Akoto (2018) classified languages in Ghana into global, glocal and local, depending on the extent to which a language identifies itself with the Ghanaian sociocultural/linguistic context. Unlike the IN Ghana map which remains relatively monolithic or unchanging, the OF Ghana one keeps increasing as a result of globalization, which among other things has resulted in increasing internationalization of some languages such as Chinese and Spanish.…”

Section: Overview Of the General Linguistic Landscape In Ghanamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The study generally focused on the kind of languages embedded in church names, and the classification of such languages (Akoto 2018). Specifically, it was interested in the identification, quantification and interpretation of the languages and language 'groups' (Akoto 2018). We read through the data and coded the church names, based on the identified languages.…”

Section: Procedures Of Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We adopted two strategies when we had difficulties. We used the language identification software for foreign languages (Akoto 2018) and contacted a 'multilingual Ghanaian" for the indigenous languages. One lecturer in the Department of Language and Communication Sciences, KNUST, who was very instrumental in this regard could speak all the local languages found in the church names (Akan, Ewe and Ga).…”

Section: Procedures Of Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Global Languages in Church Names Eberhard et al (2019) posit that there are seven thousand one hundred and eleven (7, 111) languages in the world. Akoto (2018) argues that these languages can be classified into global, glocal and local depending on the degree of a language's association to a country's sociocultural context. He thus classified all indigenous Ghanaian languages as local; English and all the remaining ones as glocal and global respectively.…”

Section: Languages In Church Names In Ghanamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…the languages that are used in church names). The paper is guided by Akoto's (2018) classification of languages into global, glocal and local.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

What Languages are in Names? Exploring the Languages in Church Names in Ghana

Akoto¹,

Afful²

2021

AJP

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Several studies over the years have employed the rhetorical question "What is in a name?" to uncover the semantic-pragmatic imports of names. This paper examines church names (ecclesionyms) which constitute part of the religio-onomastic landscape of Ghana to discover the various languages embedded in them. To achieve this task, we gathered names of churches from ‘online’ (websites of associations of Christian churches) and ‘offline’ sources (posters, signages and billboards). We manually searched the data and identified all languages embedded in the church names. Guided by Akoto’s (2018) global-local model of language choice, the analysis showed that churches in Ghana generally adopt three global languages (Hebrew, Greek and Latin), a glocal language (English) and three local languages (Akan, Ewe and Ga). It is argued that the status of the global, glocal and local languages as canonical/biblical languages, an ‘ethnically neutral’ language and ‘Ghanaian majority’ languages respectively enable the churches to foreground their uniqueness. Implications for language planning in religion are discussed. Keywords: church names, ecclesionym, glocal language, identity, language choice

show abstract

Section: Overview Of the General Linguistic Landscape In Ghanamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Procedures Of Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Procedures Of Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Languages In Church Names In Ghanamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…the languages that are used in church names). The paper is guided by Akoto's (2018) classification of languages into global, glocal and local.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

What Languages are in Names? Exploring the Languages in Church Names in Ghana

Akoto¹,

Afful²

2021

AJP

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Exploring incongruity and humour in Linguistic Landscapes in Ghana

Akoto,

Onumah,

Amoakohene

2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In recent times, Linguistic Landscape (LL) research has been extended to cover several variables, domains, modes, and geo-political contexts. Arguably, humour remains understudied in LL research. This article, therefore, examines incongruities in LLs using a corpus of digital signs and incongruous inscriptions gathered across several mediums in urban Ghana. Drawing on the incongruity theory, we examined the levels of incongruities in the corpus. The study found that incongruities in public signs in urban Ghana manifest at the lexical, grammatical, semantic, and phonological levels. We conclude that the resolutions of these incongruities induce laughter and humour in the audience with the shared sociolinguistic knowledge, and humour intelligence. The findings have implications for the theory on humour and the research on LL.

show abstract