Abstract
The current article considers a marker, anka, in Akan (Niger-Congo, Kwa branch), which has a variety of uses. Adopting a relevance-theoretic approach, I argue that anka is a marker with a modal meaning. In spite of the variety of uses of this word, I propose a univocal lexical semantics for it, which will be shown to account for its context-dependent function in all the categories. Taking into consideration the interplay between the encoded meaning of anka and pragmatically derived information in actual speech situations, monosemy is seen as a more economical and psychologically plausible way of accounting for the communicative function of this Akan marker.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 997-1013 |
Number of pages | 17 |
Journal | Journal of Pragmatics |
Volume | 37 |
Issue number | 7 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jul 2005 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Akan
- Ambiguity
- Encoded meaning
- Higher-level explicature
- Implicature
- Indirect requests
- Modality
- Relevance
- Vagueness