Speech act of greetings in Gonja

Abstract

Greeting forms are considered as socio-cultural methods developed by humans to exchange pleasantries and good wishes with the view of advancing friendship, recognition, and solidarity in a particular speech community. This study examined the speech act of greeting in the Gonja speech community. It utilizes an ethnographic design using a qualitative approach to collect data from four (4) Gonja communities and employs a purposive sampling technique to collect data through observations, audio recordings, and focus group discussions with native Gonja speakers. It was discovered that Gonja greetings reflect the universality of the phenomenon, even though there are culture- and language- specific nuances in their meanings. The data analysis also uncovered the socio-pragmatic principles guiding greeting choices as well as shedding light on the socio-cultural facets of the people that are embedded in their greetings, including the use of non-verbal cues such as squatting and lying down in showing deference to the elderly and people in authority such as chiefs.