EDUCATION
PhD in Linguistics, University of Cape Town (South Africa)
Dissertation Title: Cutting and Breaking Events in Akan
M. Phil in Linguistics (University of Ghana -Legon)
Dissertation Title: The Semantics and Pragmatics of Akan Verbs of Consumption
BA. (Hons. Second Class Upper Division) Linguistics and French, University of Ghana (Legon)
Year Abroad Program (CENTRE BENINOIS DE LA LANGUE ETRANGERE-University of Abomey- Calavi/Benin)
SPECIALIZATION
Semantics (and syntax) of West African Languages, Syntax, documentary linguistics, Gesture Studies
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Gesture studies, Urban (youth) languages, Pragmatics, Multilingualism, Language use in specific domains.
COURSES
LNGS 101: Introduction to Linguistics (including Language and Society)
LNGS 102: Structure of English Words
LNGS 201: Phonetics
LNGS 202: Introduction to Syntax
LNGS 203: Morphology
LNGS 411: Syntax of a Ghanaian Language (Akan)
LNGS 324: Introduction to Research Methods
LNGS 302: Syntax I
LNGS 716: Theories in Pragmatics
THESES SUPERVISION
Opoku Eunice (completed). Serialization of path verbs in Akan. MPhil thesis, Department of Linguistics, University of Ghana. Supporting Supervisor
Yoofi, Amfo (completed). When Naija meets Ghana: a study of contact outcomes between Ghanaian and Nigerian Pidgin English. BA thesis, Department of Linguistics, University of Ghana. Supervisor
PUBLICATION
Journal Articles
1) Agyepong, Dorothy Pokua and Diabah, Grace (2020). ‘Next time stay in your war room and pray for your boys’ or return to your kitchen: Sexist discourses in the 2019 National Science and Math quiz. Discourse & Society.1-25.
DOI: 10.1177/0957926520977220 journals.sagepub.com/home/das (first published online December 6 2020)
2) Agyepong, Dorothy Pokua and E. Kweku Osam (2020). The semantics and argument realization potentials of Akan verbs of separation. Journal of West African Languages, vol. (47.1). 30-49. (Free accessible from):
https://main.journalofwestafricanlanguages.org/index.php/downloads/downl...
3) Agyepong, Dorothy Pokua, Nana Aba Appiah Amfo and E. Kweku Osam (2017). Literal and metaphorical usages of ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ in Akan. Nordic Journal of African Studies (NJAS) 26(1). 62-78 (Freely accessible from http://www.njas.helsinki.fi/)
In press (2021)
Agyepong, Dorothy Pokua. “My heart tears” and “my eyes open”: exploring the verb te ‘to tear’ and its range of interpretations in Asante-Twi. Special Issue Sociolinguistics Studies.
Under review
Mohr Susanne and Agyepong, Dorothy P. My mustard is your plantain fufu: The cultural adaptation of quantity judgment tasks in Ghanaian English and Akan. (Contemporary Journal of African Studies)
Book Chapters
Deumert, A., Panović, I., Agyepong, D., Barasa, D. (2019), African Languages and Mobile Communication – Between Constraint and Creativity. In H. Ekkehard Wolf (ed.), Cambridge Handbook of African Linguistics. Cambridge University Press, pp. 555-574.
In press (2021)
Agyepong, Dorothy P. and Nana Aba Appiah Amfo. Forthcoming. Ghana: Ghanaian Student Pidgin English. In Paul Kerswill and Heike Wiese (eds.) Urban Contact Dialect and Language Change: Insights from the Global North and South. Oxford: Routledge (Taylor & Francis).
Under Review
1) Atintono Samuel, Dorothy Pokua Agyepong and Promise Dodzi Kpoglu. A Comparative Study of the Basic Locative Construction in Gurenɛ, Asante-Twi, and Ewe. John Benjamins
2) Amfo, Nana Aba Appiah and Dorothy P. Agyepong. Making the secular sacred: Sociolinguistic domains and performance in Christian worship. In Sinfree Makoni and Ana Deumert (eds.) Sociolinguistics and Southern Theory: Voices, Questions and Alternatives. Durham: Duke University Press.
Conferences and seminar presentations
February (2020) High level event: “making a decade of action for indigenous languages”. 27-28 February 2020 (Los Pinos, Mexico City)
December (2019) “Language Technology for All (LT4All): Enabling Linguistic Diversity and Multilingualism Worldwide”. 4-6 December 2019
(UNESCO Headquarters Paris, France)
August (2019) The semantics and combinatorics of bú 'to break' and pàè ‘to split’ in Asante-Twi (Akan): exploring the meaning shifts. Presented at the 31st West African Languages Congress (WALC) (Félix HOUPHOUËT-BOIGNY University, in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire) August 11-15, 2019
Postdoctoral Fellowships
2020-2021 ACLS-AHP Postdoctoral Fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies, African Humanities Program.
Project title: Investigating the effect of age and culture on co-speech gestures in Asante-Twi oral narratives.
2020 (January-May) Building Capacity for Early Career Humanities Scholar (BECHS-Africa) Postdoctoral Fellowship (Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, USA).
Current Projects
1) Gestural variation in multilingual speakers of Educated Ghanaian Pidgin English (EGPE) (Lead Investigator).
2) Investigating the effect of age and culture on co-speech gestures in Asante-Twi oral narratives (ACLS-AHP 2020/21)
3) The development of speech and gesture in Sesotho oral narratives. (Co-investigator)
4) The syntax and semantics of PEEL verbs in Asante-Twi (Akan Book Project)
5) The combinatorial patterning of twá 'to cut' in Asante-Twi (Akan): Multiple senses or contextual modulations?
6) Papa no’: A socio-pragmatic analysis of a (political) humour gone bad (Co-investigator)
7) ‘The mother of all nations’: Gendered discourses in Ghana’s 2020 elections" (Co-investigator)
GRANTS AND AWARDS
European Union Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (Marie Curie IRSES International Research Staff Exchange Scheme GEST_LAN_D PIRSES-GA-2013-612563) (2017 March-July)
European Union Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (Marie Curie IRSES International Research Staff Exchange Scheme GEST_LAN_D PIRSES-GA-2013-612563) (2017 October-December)
Max and Lillie Sonneberg Scholarship for International Travel
Faculty of Humanities Travel Scholarship
Doctoral Scholarship (awarded by The A.W. Mellon Foundation through The Centre for African Language Diversity (CALDi), University of Cape Town, South Africa.)
Lestrade Scholarship, University of Cape Town, South Africa
International and Refugee Students’ Scholarship, University of Cape Town