http://41.74.91.244:8080/handle/123456789/31 Mon, 06 Apr 2026 13:24:04 GMT 2026-04-06T13:24:04Z http://41.74.91.244:8080/handle/123456789/411 Subject and non-subject ex-situ focus in Dagbani Issah S.A.; Smith P.W. This paper offers a description and account of the patterns of ex-situ focus in Dagbani. We show that there are two syntactic strategies for creating ex-situ focus in the language, one involving A'-movement to the left periphery, and the second involving base generation in the left periphery combined with coreference to a resumptive pronoun. Furthermore, we argue that subjects are difficult to move from Spec,TP to Spec,CP in the left-periphery because of anti-locality, which creates a tension when trying to focus subjects, which are required to derivationally fill the specifier of both positions. We further show that what looks to be a two-way distinction between the behaviour of subjects and non-subjects in the language is in fact a three-way distinction between subjects that are focussed to a local left-periphery, subjects that are focussed to a non-local left-periphery, and non-subjects. These distinctions arise due to there being two methods for Dagbani to resolve the antilocality problem of subject movement, and so local subjects solve the problem differently to non-local subjects. � 2019 Ubiquity Press. All rights reserved. Issah, S.A., Goethe-Universit�t Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, University of Education, Winneba, Ghana; Smith, P.W., Goethe-Universit�t Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany Wed, 01 Jan 2020 00:00:00 GMT http://41.74.91.244:8080/handle/123456789/411 2020-01-01T00:00:00Z http://41.74.91.244:8080/handle/123456789/343 Linguistic Surrogacy with Minimal Semantics among the Dagomba of Ghana Hudu F. This paper discusses critical questions on the processing of non-native surrogate languages of the Dagbamba (Dagomba) of Ghana. The Dagbamba use the fiddle, talking drum and double bell to encode speech in Hausa, Akan and other languages they do not speak. Fiddling and talking drums are integral to their festivals, funerals, the installation of chiefs and other cultural events. These instruments are used to entertain, praise, and send messages ranging from daybreak notifications to mobilizing people for war. The surrogate language they produce is a specialized language, interpreted mainly by people deeply rooted in their culture. It indicates nobility and statesmanship. While the performers and their patrons do not understand Akan or Hausa, they process and communicate with Akan and Hausa surrogate languages. The maintenance of the languages of performance is part of the practitioners' desire to preserve the cultural heritage of Dagbamba. This raises questions about the acquisition of these surrogate languages, the level of accuracy of production and comprehension, the role of music in the processing and the implications of these for linguistic theory. These questions are discussed on the basis of data from recorded interviews of talking drummers and fiddlers. The overarching goal is to highlight the gaps in our understanding of language processing that surface in the study of surrogate language, when processing takes place with a poverty of grammatical content. � Hudu. Hudu, F., Department of Linguistics, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana, Department of Gur-Gonja Education, University of Education, Winneba, Ajumako, Ghana Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT http://41.74.91.244:8080/handle/123456789/343 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z http://41.74.91.244:8080/handle/123456789/293 'The heart has caught me': Anger metaphors in Likpakpaln (Konkomba) Bisilki A.K.; Yakpo K. We provide a first documentation and analysis of anger metaphors in Likpakpaln, a little-studied Mabia (Gur) language, primarily spoken in Northern Ghana. We adopt Conceptual Metaphor Theory as the analytical framework for this study. The study of emotional body-part metaphors and their lexicalisation patterns in Likpakpaln is interlaced with nominal and clausal morphosyntax as well as grammatical relations. Anger is conceptualised in terms of li?uul �heart� and we identify five types of clause structures in which anger expressions occur in Likpakpaln. Further, we make out four metaphorical conceptualisations. In an areally prominent conceptualisation that we term ANGER IS HUMAN-LIKE, li?uul �heart� is anthropomorphised as a human-like agent who can �catch�, �hold�, �kill�, or �eat� a person. Other metaphorical conceptualisations are ANGER IS HEAT, AN ANGRY PERSON IS A PRESSURISED CONTAINER, and THE BODY IS A CONTAINER FOR ANGER. All in all, metaphors of anger in Likpakpaln show cross-cultural correspondences and culture-specific construals, thus providing evidence for the cultural embodied prototype theory. The Likpakpaln data also reflects a departure from some general tendencies. For instance, the coding of positive and negative emotion concepts in Likpakpaln is nuanced by the use of particular synonyms of the heart rather than by the selection of different body parts. � 2021, EQUINOX PUBLISHING. Bisilki, A.K., University of Education, Winneba, Ghana, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; Yakpo, K., The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Fri, 01 Jan 2021 00:00:00 GMT http://41.74.91.244:8080/handle/123456789/293 2021-01-01T00:00:00Z