Cover not available

Article published In: Language and Dialogue
Vol. 14:3 (2024) ► pp.403–427

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

The ethnopragmatics of Akan leave-takings and farewells

 | University of Ghana
Published online: 26 August 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ld.00179.agy
Abstract
The paper examines leave-takings and farewells as linguistic routines in Akan. It emerged from my previous works on ethnopragmatics of Akan linguistic routines, namely apology, requests, greetings, thanking, advice, compliments, etc. This paper adopted Weigand’s (2010) Mixed Game Model, which deals with dialogic action games. It employs qualitative approaches including interviews, observation, and the recording of natural ethnographic events in the Akan society. These include closings and farewells at funerals, durbars, visits, travelling, arbitrations, folksongs, etc. The paper discusses the ethnosemantics of the leave-takings and farewell expressions. The findings of this paper will contribute to the use of dialogic action games in discussing other linguistic routines. This study will help further research in leave-taking and farewell in other Ghanaian languages.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Structure of the article
    • 1.2Concepts of leave-taking and farewell
    • 1.3The Akan language and people
  • 2.Theoretical framework: The dialogic action game
    • 2.1Methodology
    • 2.2Data sources
  • 3.Literature review
  • 4.Ethnographic contexts and analysis of leave-taking and farewells
    • 4.1Akan concept of akwansrɛ ‘leave-taking’ and nkradie ‘farewell’
    • 4.2The Akan ethnosemantics of akwansrɛ ‘leave-taking’
      • Indirect-animator leave-taking
    • 4.3Nkradie ‘farewell’
      • 4.3.1Direct nkradie
      • 4.3.2Indirect nkradie ‘farewell’
      • 4.3.3Nkradie ‘farewell’ in death
  • 5.Leave-taking and farewell in social interaction and time
    • 5.1Leave-taking based on Akan deictic period of the day
    • 5.2Leave-taking after a visit to a sick person
    • 5.3Leave-taking and farewell after arbitration
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (37)
References
Agyekum, Kofi. 2008. “The Language of nsawa: Akan funeral donations.” Issues in Intercultural Communication 2(2): 155–174.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. “Akan proverbs and aphorisms about marriage.” Research Review 27(2): 1–24.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. Introduction to Literature, 3rd edition. Accra: Adwinsa Publishers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2019. “The ethnopragmatics of Akan advice.” Pragmatics 29 (3): 309–331. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Akindele, Dele Femi. 2007. “Lumela/Lumela: a socio-pragmatic analysis of Sesotho greetings.” Nordic Journal of African Studies 16(1): 1–17.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Al-Harahsheh, Ahmad and Fawzia Boucif. 2019. “A socio-pragmatic study of greeting and leave-taking patterns in Algerian Arabic in Mostaganem.” Jordan Journal of Modern Languages and Literatures 11 (2): 193–224.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ameka, Felix K. 1999. “Partir c’est mourir un peu: universal and culture specific features of leave taking.” RASK International Journal of Language Communication 91: 257–283.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2009. “Access rituals in West African communities: An Ethnopragmatic Perspective.” In Ritual Communication, ed. by Gunter Senft and Ellen B. Basso, 127–151. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ameka, Felix K. and Anneke Breeveld. 2004. “Areal cultural scripts for social interaction in West African communities.” Intercultural Pragmatics 1–21: 167–187. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Atika, Istikhorini and Wilian Sudirman. 2020. “Greeting and leave taking in Sasak.” Linguist Indonesia 38(1): 57–69. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Baehren, Lucy. 2022. “Saying “goodbye” to the conundrum of leave-taking: A cross-disciplinary review.” Humanities and Social Sciences Communication 9(46): 1–13. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Betholia, Chandam. 2009. “Entries and exits: an analysis of greetings and leave taking in Meitei speech community.” Mon-Khmer Studies: Journal of Southeast Asian Language Culture 381: 105–116.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
DuFon, M. A. 2010. “The socialization of leave-taking in Indonesian.” In Pragmatics and Language Learning, ed. by G. Kasper, H. T. Nguyen, D. R. Yoshimi, Y. K. Yoshioka, 91–111. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i, National Foreign Language Resource Center.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Duranti, Alessandro. 2001. “Universal and culture-specific properties of greetings.” In Linguistic Anthropology. A Reader, ed. by Alessandro Duranti, 208–238. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goffman, Ervin. 1967. Interaction Ritual. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1971. Relations in Public: Microstudies of the social order. London: Allen Lane.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grein, Marion. 2007. “The speech act of refusal within the minimal action game: A comparative study of German and Japanese.” In Dialogue and Culture, ed. by Marion Grein and Edda Weigand, 1–19. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ide, Sachiko. 1989. “Formal forms and discernment: two neglected aspects of universals of linguistic politeness.” Multilingual 8–2/31: 223–248. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jucker, Andreas H. 2017. “Speech Acts and Speech Act Sequences: Greetings and Farewells in the History of American English.” Studia Neophilologica 89(8): 1–20. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kessler, Suzzane J. 1974. An empirical study of interpersonal endings. Dissertation. New York: City University.
Laver, John. 1981. “Linguistic routines and politeness in greeting and parting.” In Conversational routine, ed. by Florian Coulmas, 289–304. The Hague: Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mey, Jacob Louis. 2009. ‘Pragmatic acts.’ In Concise Encyclopedia of Pragmatics, 2nd edition, ed. by Jacob Louis Mey, 743–753. Oxford: Elsevier.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mocanu, Mihaela and Anca-Diana Bibiri. 2019. “Greetings and farewells in contemporary Romanian: A sociolinguistic approach.” Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie 135(3): 866–886. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nketia, Johannes and Hanson Kwabena. 1955. Funeral Dirges of the Akan people. Achimota: James Townsend Ltd.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Obeng, Gyasi Samuel. 1987. Conversational Strategies: Towards a phonological description of projection in Akyem-Twi. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of York.
Weigand, Edda. 2007. “The Sociobiology of Language.” In Dialogue and Culture, ed. by Marion Grein and Edda Weigand, 27–49. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009. Language as Dialogue. From rules to principles of probability, ed. by Sebastian Feller. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010a. Dialogue: The Mixed Game. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2010b. “Language as dialogue.” Intercultural Pragmatics 7(3): 505–515. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012a. “The challenge of complexity: Body, mind and language in interaction.” In Moving ourselves, moving others, motion and emotion in intersubjectivity, consciousness and language, ed. by Ad Foolen, Ulrike M. Ludtke, Timothy P. Racine, and Jordan Zlatev, 383–406. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012b. “Professional action games: theory and practice.” In Professional communication across languages and cultures, ed. by Stanca Măda and Răzvan Săftoiu, 43–59. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2015. “Persuasion or the integration of grammar and rhetoric.” In Persuasive Games in Political and Professional Dialogue, ed. by Răzvan Săftoiu, Maria-Ionela Neagu, and Stanca Măda, 1–18. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wilson, Edward O. 2003. The Future of Life. London: Abacus.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wójtowicz, Beata and Lionel Posthumus. 2021. “Greeting and saying farewell in two Bantu languages: Swahili and Zulu.” Studies in African languages and Cultures 551: 10–29.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue