Modal marking in Akan: The case of anka

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3 Citations (Scopus)

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 languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)997-1013
Number of pages17
JournalJournal of Pragmatics
Volume37
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2005
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Akan
  • Ambiguity
  • Encoded meaning
  • Higher-level explicature
  • Implicature
  • Indirect requests
  • Modality
  • Relevance
  • Vagueness

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