Dr. Mercy Bobuafor
Departmental Representative, College of Humanities Academic Board
About
Mercy Bobuafor is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Linguistics. Her research interests include language documentation and description, especially syntax and semantics, lexicography, and anthropological linguistics. She focuses on Kwa languages of West Africa, especially, Ewe and other Gbe languages, Tafi and other Ghana-Togo-Mountain languages. She is also interested in language use in various domains of social life and development such as politics, education and business. She has done immersion fieldwork among the Tafi and has published the first-ever grammar of the Tafi language (Tɪgbɔ). This grammar represents a significant contribution to the understanding and preservation of the linguistic heritage of the Tafi people. She has also published articles on the syntax, semantics, and pragmatics of the language. She teaches courses on the Linguistics of Ghanaian languages, Ewe and Ga, Language and Politics, Research Methods (graduate level), and Field Linguistics (graduate level). She is a Postdoctoral Fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies-African Humanities Program (ACLS-AHP) and a Fulbright African Research Scholar.
Education
Ph.D., Linguistics, University of Leiden, The Netherlands (2013)
M.Phil., Linguistics, University of Ghana (2001)
B. A. French and Linguistics, University of Ghana (1994)
Research Interest
• Descriptive and documentary linguistics
• Syntax
• Semantics and Pragmatics
• Anthropological linguistics
• Ethnography of communication
• Linguistics of Ewe Language and Culture
• Tafi language
• Field linguistics
Publications
BOOK
Bobuafor, Mercy. 2013. A grammar of Tafi. PhD. Dissertation, University of Leiden. (LOT Dissertation Series 327). Utrecht: LOT (Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics). ISBN 978-94-6093-113-0.
JOURNAL ARTICLES
Bobuafor, Mercy. 2021. Comparative constructions in Tafi. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 42(2): 163-190. https://doi.org/10.1515/jall-2022-2025
Bobuafor, Mercy 2018. Paddling a canoe and the preparation of red rice balls: The semantics of Tafi cuisine. Ghana Journal of Linguistics 7(2):134-153. https://www.ajol.info/index.php/gjl/issue/view/17639
Bobuafor, Mercy. 2018. Separation events in Tafi language and culture. Studies in African Linguistics 47 (1 &2): 1-23. http://sal.research,pdx.edu/articles.htm
Bobuafor, Mercy. 2015/2016. Where do Tafi adjectives come from? Afrika und Übersee 92: 171-189. [Published in 2018].
Bobuafor, Mercy, E. Kweku Osam & Paul Agbedor. 2006/07. Some verbal alternations in Ewe. Afrika und Übersee 89: 109-126. [Published in 2009].
BOOK CHAPTERS
Bobuafor, Mercy and Agbetsoamedo Yvonne A. 2024. Adposition classes in Tafi and Sɛlɛɛ. In James Essegbey & Enoch Aboh (eds.), Predication in African languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Bobuafor, Mercy. 2020. When numerals agree and don’t agree: the case of Tafi. In Jenneke van der Val, Heleen Smits, Sarah Petrollino, Victoria Nyst, & Maarten Kossman (eds.), Essays on African languages and linguistics in honour of Marteen Mous, 353-369. Leiden: African Studies Centre.
Bobuafor, Mercy L. 2009. Noun classes in Tafi. In M. Leo Wetzels (ed.), The linguistics of endangered languages: morphology and syntax, 267-307. Utrecht: LOT Occasional Papers.