University of Ghana Linguistics

The Department of Linguistics, one of the oldest on the African continent was established in 1964. It has over the decades been a center for teaching and research into all aspects of Ghanaian languages as well as linguistic theory.

Our vision is to:

Be among the best linguistics departments in Africa and the world by producing world class graduates and scholars well versed in both theoretical and applied aspects of language studies.

Our mission is to:

Produce knowledge through research on all aspects of language and language use including language teaching, language and business, language and society, language policy, language and the deaf, language and culture, language and law, language and politics etc.,
Train students to appreciate the nature of language in general and Ghanaian languages in particular, and their role in the development of the society,
Prepare our students to take up prominent roles and provide solutions in all aspects of public life where language expertise in all forms is called for.

The Department which started with a pioneer class of five students now has a total student population of 1438 enrolled in both undergraduate and graduate programmes with a breakdown as follows:

Undergrad – 1305
Graduate – 133

Graduate students are comprised of the following:
MPhil Linguistics – 27
MPhil TESL – 19
MA TESL – 81 (will admit an additional 81 this ‘summer’)
PhD – 6

Our department has fifteen full-time faculty, four part-time faculty and one practical part-time instructor in sign language.

University of Ghana Linguistics Programmes

The Department offers Bachelor of Arts (BA) programmes in Linguistics and Ghanaian Language Studies. Its BA programmes covers courses in core linguistics (phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics) as well as applied areas such as sociolinguistics, pragmatics, sign language, language acquisition, psycholinguistics and language use in specific domains such as politics and business. Our undergraduate programmes are offered on the Legon Campus, Accra City Campus and through the University of Ghana Distance Education programme, under the Institute of Continuing and Distance Education. We offer graduate (MA/MPhil/PhD) programmes in three areas namely Linguistics, Ghanaian Language Studies and Teaching of English as a Second Language (TESL).

Research

The Department has maintained a vibrant research culture over the years into aspects of core and applied linguistics. Faculty members in the department engage in field research work, language documentation, as well as research into theoretical linguistics. While the main focus is on Ghanaian languages, some faculty members also engage in research on cross-border languages and languages in other African countries. Currently the language spread of our research activities includes Akan, Buli, Dagaare, Dagbani, Dangme, Ewe, Ga, Gurunε and English in Ghana. In addition to these relatively well-studied languages, our students and faculty continue to work on a number of under-described languages such as Dεg, Efutu, Gikyode, Gua, Kaakyi, Lεtε Sεlεε and Tafi. Current research projects that faculty members are involved in include:

· Language, medicine and communication: Understanding lay thought in the presentation of mental health challenges

· Representations of gender in Akan proverbs

· Gender representation in media discourses

· Semantics of Akan verbs

· Lexical innovation in Akan and Ghanaian English

· Constructionist approach to morphological description

Theoretical issues in Dagbani phonology and morphology.
Dagbani prosodic structure.
Number marking on Dagbani verbs.

University of Ghana Linguistics Contact

+233 28 9527702

Department of Linguistics
PO Box LG 61

Legon, Accra, Ghana
West Africa