A Sociolinguistic Explorative Study of Interactional Discourse in Dagbani and Ewe

Iddrisu Alhassan Sibdow, Sampson Lucky Kudjo Yekple, Florence Dorleku and Mohammed Abdul-Rashid Immorrow
Additional contact information
Iddrisu Alhassan Sibdow: Tamale College of Education, Ghana.
Sampson Lucky Kudjo Yekple: St. Teresa’s College of Education, Ghana.
Florence Dorleku: St. Teresa’s College of Education, Ghana.
Mohammed Abdul-Rashid Immorrow: Tamale College of Education, Ghana.

European Journal of Language and Culture Studies, 2022, vol. 1, issue 6, 9-23

Abstract: This study explores greetings among the Dagbamba of Northern Ghana and the Ewe of Southern Volta, Ghana. The work investigates the time-of-day greetings as the sociocultural interactional functions and value of the people. The research is a qualitative type, which uses ethnography as its design. The primary data was solicited from information from observation, interviews, and participation in events in the research communities. Secondary data has been solicited from existing literature. Researchers participated in daily routines with the people in the research communities in Xavi Traditional Area and Tolon in Dagbon state. The data was descriptively analyzed. It was discovered that greetings in the two languages are culturally categorized with reference to the time of day, interlocutors, and specific events or occurrences. We demonstrate that the types of greetings associated to the Dagbani and the Ewe culture are important as they demarcate timelines and the phenomenal periods, in which these greetings must be cast. Apart from the time-of-day greetings, we demonstrate some referential greetings that are applicable in the languages in relation to specific events. It was further confirmed that greetings among the people encode politeness strategies fostering unity and healthy cohesion. The greetings are categorized as informal and formal or ceremonial. The investigations also reveal that there are social factors such as modernization and religious practices that contribute to changes in greetings, hence influencing society.

Keywords: communicative phenomenon; education; greeting; interlocutor; time. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://eu-opensci.org/index.php/ejlang/article/view/4041 Abstract page (text/html)
https://eu-opensci.org/index.php/ejlang/article/download/4041/678 Full text (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:epw:ejlang:v:1:y:2022:i:6:id:4041

DOI: 10.24018/ejlang.2022.1.6.41

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in European Journal of Language and Culture Studies from European Open Science Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Support ().