About

Dr. Kingsley Cyril Mintah is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Ghana whose scholarship focuses on discourse studies, systemic functional linguistics, genre analysis, academic literacies, and English in Ghana. His work examines the relationship between language, society, ideology, and communication with particular attention to how linguistic choices construct meaning in political discourse, media texts, academic writing, institutional communication, and digital spaces.

His research employs discourse-analytic, corpus-assisted, and systemic functional linguistic frameworks to investigate questions of persuasion, evaluation, identity construction, genre, rhetoric, and public communication.

Dr. Mintah is a recipient of several competitive research awards and fellowships, including the Building Capacity for Early Career Humanities Scholars in Africa (BECHS-Africa) Fellowship, the BANGA-Africa Research Grant, and the Africa Platform Fellowship at Ghent University. His work contributes to emerging scholarship on language, discourse, and social transformation in Ghana.

Education

• Doctor of Philosophy Degree in English (2020), University of Ghana, Legon
• Master of Philosophy Degree in English (2012), University of Ghana, Legon
• Post Graduate Diploma in Education (2021 – 2022), Valley View University, Ghana

• Bachelor of Arts in English and Psychology (2004 – 2008), University of Ghana, Legon 

   

  Post-Doctoral Fellowship

• American University in Cairo, Building Capacity for Early Career Humanities Scholars in Africa (BECHS-Africa) Fellowship (2023–2024)
• Ghent University, Africa Platform Fellowship (2026)  

Research Interest

Dr. Mintah’s research explores language as a social and communicative resource within institutional, political, academic, and media contexts.

His major research interests include:

• Discourse Analysis
• Systemic Functional Linguistics
• Academic Literacies
• Genre Studies
• Academic Writing and Research Communication
• English Grammar
• Language and Ideology

A significant feature of his work is the application of systemic functional linguistic theory to the study of discourse. His research investigates how language users deploy grammatical, rhetorical, and evaluative resources to construct identities, persuade audiences, negotiate social relationships, and represent social realities.

Publications

Gyasi, R. B., & Mintah, K. C. (2026). Discursive construction of Ghana’s digital agenda in (vice) presidential discourse: A corpus-assisted discourse analysis. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 13, 102461. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2026.102461

Mohammed, A., Frimpong, G. K., & Mintah, K. C. (2026). Cohesion in persuasive media texts: An analysis of Ghanaian newspaper editorials through the lens of systemic functional linguistics. Atras Journal, 7(1), 299-315. https://doi.org/10.70091/Atras/vol07no01.20

Mintah, K. C., & Wiredu, J. F. (2025). A reconsideration of grammatical categorisation: The unit phrase. Journal of Languages and Linguistics, 4(1), 105–116. https://doi.org/10.51317/jll.v4i1.815

Kunkuri, E. D., & Mintah, K. C. (2025). Move-structure analysis of police written witness statements in Ghana: An account of a context-defining police discourse. Written  Communication, 42(3), 560-586. https://doi.org/10.1177/07410883251328319

Mintah, K. C. (2025). Revisiting a register assumption from SFG perspective: The case of Ghanaian newspaper editorials, Legon Journal of Humanities, 36 (1), 84-116. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ljh.v36i1.4

Mintah, K. C., Frimpong, G. K., & Quainoo, J. E. (2025). Let the circumstance speak: A focus on the circumstance in a register study. TWIST, 20(1), 297-304. https://twistjournal.net/twist/article/view/651

Mintah, K. C., Dawson-Ahmoah, G. N. A., Gyasi, N. Y. O., Ayaawan, A. E., & Opoku, G. (2025). We are not campaigning: A functional discourse appraisal of Ghanaian newspapers’ subtle political campaigns. African Quarterly Social Science Review, 2(2), 10–21. https://doi.org/10.51867/AQSSR.2.2.2

Mintah, K. C. (2024). An appraisal study of Ghanaian media’s attitude towards Britain on the death and burial of Queen Elizabeth II. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 10, 100911. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2024.100911

Mintah, K. C. (2024). Rhetorical structural patterns of postgraduate theses abstracts of related disciplines: A genre study. Discourse and Interaction, 17(1), 73-93. https://doi.org/10.5817/DI2024-1-73

Mintah, K. C. (2024). Utilizing attributive patterns as a linguistic classification tool of newspapers. Newspaper Research Journal, 45(1), 72-89. https://doi.org/10.1177/07395329231211864

Mintah, K. C. (2015). Palatalization practices in Ghanaian English. World Journal of English Language. 5(2), 9 – 17. https://doi.org/10.5430/wjel.v5n2p9

Mintah, K. C. (2014). Bilingualism with/without diglossia? On the use of English and French among Francophone students in Ghana. Wisconsin Journal. 4, 35 – 48.