Professor Evershed Kwasi Amuzu

Director of the Language Centre

Contact info ekamuzu@ug.edu.gh

About

I am a sociolinguist with inclinations toward contact linguistics. My research focus has therefore revolved around the study of bilingualism / multilingualism and its related phenomena. I have published extensively on (the grammar of) codeswitching, lexical borrowing, the distribution of languages across domains (and the allied topics, language maintenance and language shift), language use in specific domains (e.g. the courtroom in Ghana), and language contact in the new media. I joined the University of Ghana in 1998 at the Language Centre and transferred in 2007 to the Department of Linguistics. I was promoted to the rank of Senior Lecturer in 2010 and to the rank of Associate Professor in 2019. I twice served as Head of the Department of Linguistics (2014-2016, 2020-2021). I now serve as the Director of the Language Centre. 

Education

PhD, Australian National University (2005)

MPhil, University of Oslo (1998)

MA, University of Ghana (1993)

BA, University of Ghana (1991)

Research Interest

Research Interests:

  • Bilingualism, multilingualism, diglossia, triglossia
  • Codeswitching (especially the nature of speakers’ bilingual competence)
  • Lexical borrowing
  • Language maintenance, language shift
  • Language use in specific domains (e.g. in the courtroom)
  • Variationist sociolinguistics

Publications

  1. Agbetsoamedo, Yvonne, Evershed Kwasi Amuzu, and David Dankwa. (2024). Language Contact in Santrokofi, a Ghana-Togo Mountain Language Community: Impact on Selee. Language Matters, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/10228195.2024.2336445
  2. Boakye, Bernard, Rebecca A. Akpanglo-Nartey, and Evershed K. Amuzu. (2023). Sociophonetics of [r] in Akan. Ghana Journal of Linguistics, 12:2, pp.1-20. 
  3. Akrobettoe, Raymond. T., Regina O. Caesar, and Evershed K. Amuzu. (2022). Dialectal variation in lexical borrowings in Dangme. Legon Journal of the Humanities. Vol. 33.2, pp. 1-28.
  4. Amuzu, Evershed Kwasi, Akua Campbell, and Seth Ofori (2020). “That’s not my understanding” – Interpretation in the Ghanaian Multilingual Court. Language and Dialogue 10:3, pp.389-421.
  5. Inusah, Abdul-Razak, Evershed Kwasi Amuzu, and George Akanlig-Pare. (2019). Variations of [r] in Dagbani female names. South African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 37(3): 191-209. DOI: 10.2989/16073614.2019.1671878.
  6. Amuzu, Evershed K., Nutakor Yvonne, and Amfo Nana Aba A. (2019). Multilingualism and language practices of Nigerien migrants in Ghana. In the Special Issue titled ‘Multilingualism and language policies in the African context: Lessons from Ghana’. Current Issues in Language Planning 20:4, pp.389-402.
  7. Nuworsu Anastasia, Diabah Grace, Evershed K. Amuzu (2019). “Look me, hwε ha, ofainε kwεmɔ biε aha mi fioo!!”: Codeswitching at inter-ethnic traditional marriage ceremonies in southern Ghana. Multilingua 38:3, pp.238-311. https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2017-0097
  8. Amuzu, Evershed K, Kuwornu, Abigail Ayiglo, and Opoku-Fofie, Sylvia. (2018). “Awww, we r sorry wai”. Pragmatic functions of L1 discourse markers in Ghanaians’ English-based WhatsApp conversations. Contemporary Journal of African Studies, Vol. 5 No. 2, pp. 60-86.
  9. Amuzu, Evershed K. (2016). The syntax of adverbials in Ewe-English Codeswitching. Journal of Cognitive Science 17 (1), 133-165.
  10. Quarcoo, Millicent and Evershed K. Amuzu. (2016). Codeswitching in University Students’ Out-of-Classroom Academic Discussions. Issues in Intercultural Communication. Vol.4 (1). pp. 1-13. Indiana University, Bloomington. https://www.novapublishers.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=59573. 
  11.  Amuzu, K. Evershed and Ebenezer Asinyor. (2016). Errors on (sic) Ghanaian Students’ Written English: Is Speaking School Pidgin English the Cause? Ghana Journal of Development Studies. University of Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana. Vol. 13 (2), 48-65.
  12. Owusu, Edward; John Agor, and Evershed K. Amuzu. (2015). Second Language Learners’ Family Background and their English Writing Competence: The Case of a Private Tertiary Institution in Ghana. Studies in English Language Teaching, Vol 3 (4), 466-486.
  13.  Quarcoo, Millicent, Evershed K. Amuzu, and Augustina Pokua Owusu (2014). Codeswitching as a means and a message in hiplife music in Ghana. Contemporary Journal of African Studies Vol. 2 (2), 1-32. 
  14.  Amuzu, Evershed K and Singler, John Victor (2014). Introduction: Codeswitching in West-Africa. In: “Special Issue: Codeswitching in West Africa”, International Journal of Bilingualism. Vol. 18(4), 329-345.
  15.  Amuzu, Evershed Kwasi. (2014). Producing composite codeswitching: The role of the modularity of language production. In: “Special Issue: Codeswitching in West Africa”, International Journal of Bilingualism, Vol. 18(4), 384-407.
  16. Amuzu, Evershed Kwasi. (2014). A Comparative Study of Bilingual Verb Phrases in Ewe-English and Gengbe-French Codeswitching. Journal of Language Contact. Vol. 7(2), 250-287.
  17. Amuzu, Evershed Kwasi. (2013). Bilingual serial verb constructions: A comparative study of Ewe-English and Ewe-French codeswitching. Lingua 137, 19-37.
  18. Amuzu, Evershed Kwasi. (2013). A cross-linguistic study of double plurality in bilingual codeswitching in West Africa. Journal of West African Languages. Volume XL, No. 2: 73-100.
  19. Amuzu, Evershed Kwasi. (2012) Socio-pragmatics of conversational codeswitching in Ghana. Ghana Journal of Linguistics. 2.1: 1-22.
  20. Amuzu, Evershed Kwasi. (2009). “Mechanisms of language maintenance in Ewe-English Codeswitching”. Journal of West African Languages Volume XXXVI, Number 1-2, pp. 221-243.
  21. Amuzu. Evershed Kwasi. (2009). “Double Plurality in Codeswitching”. Legon Journal of the Humanities. Vol 20, 151-180. 
  22. Amuzu, Evershed Kwasi. (2005). “Revisiting the Classic Codeswitching – Composite Codeswitching Distinction: A Case Study of Nonverbal Predication in Ewe-English Codeswitching.” In Australian Journal of Linguistics 25.1, 127-151.
  23. Amuzu, Evershed Kwasi. (2005). “The Composite Matrix Language in Mixed Possessive  Constructions in Ewe-English Codeswitching.” In Monash University Linguistics Papers.  Vol. 4 (2), pp. 11-27. [Special Issue on Language contact, hybrids and new varieties: emergent possessive constructions.]

BOOK CHAPTERS

  1. Amuzu, Evershed Kwasi, Nana Ama Agyeman, Enyonam Akpakli, and Faustina Taylor. (to appear). A sociolinguistic study of permutations of languages in insertional codeswitching in two triglossic speech communities in Ghana. In: Evgeniya Gutova (Ed.) Multilingualism, identity, and language endangerment in Africa, Springer Reference Series.
  2. Amuzu, Evershed K., Elvis ResCue, Bernard Boakye and Nana Aba A. Amfo. (2023). African contributions to four journals of sociolinguistics. In Bassey E. Antia and Sinfree Makoni (eds.). Southernizing Sociolinguistics: colonialism, racism, and patriarchy in language in the global south. London: Routledge, pp. 146-166.
  3. Ayira, Ernestina Kabrikole, Jemima Asabea Anderson and Evershed K. Amuzu. (2023). English meets indigenous African language: A case study of English-Kasem   bilinguals in Ghana. In Mayowa Akinlotan (ed.), Englishes in Africa, pp. New York: Peter Lang Publishers, pp. 28-49.
  4. Akpanglo-Nartey, R., Regina Caesar and Evershed K. Amuzu. (2022). Compliment responses in Ga, Dangme and Ewe. In Gyasi Obeng, Samuel and Kofi Agyekum (eds.) Topics in West African Discourse Pragmatics. Cologne: Rudiger Koppe Verlag Koln, pp. 33-53. 
  5. Berg, Margot, Evershed K. Amuzu, Komlan Essizewa, Komlan, Elvis Yevudey, and Kamailoudini Tagba. (2017). Crosslinguistic effects of adjectivization strategies in Surinam, Ghana and Togo. In Angermeyer, Phillip; Cecelia Cutler and Zvjezdana Vrzic (eds.), Language contact in Africa and the African diaspora in the Americas. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing. Pp. 343-362.
  6. Amuzu, Evershed K. (2015). Combining the Markedness Model and the Matrix Language Frame Model in analyzing bilingual speech. In Gerald Stell and Kofi Yakpo (eds.) Code-switching between structural and sociolinguistic perspectives. Berlin: De Gruyter. Pp. 85-116. 
  7. Amuzu, Evershed Kwasi. (2014). Is codeswitching in Ghana still the ‘third tongue’ of the educated? In Kwesi Yankah, Kofi Saah and Nana Aba Amfo (eds.) A Legon Reader in Ghanaian linguistics. Oxfordshire: Ayebia Clarke publishing Limited. pp.162-177.
  8. Amuzu, Evershed Kwasi. (2002). ”The Mixed Possessive Adnominal Construction in Ewe-English Codeswitching: A Test for the Matrix  Language Frame Model”. In F. K. Ameka and E. K. Osam (eds.), New Directions in Ghanaian Linguistics. Accra: ACP Publishers. pp. 147-171.

Book

32. Amuzu, Evershed Kwasi. (2010). Composite Codeswitching in West Africa: The Case of     Ewe-English Codeswitching. Saarbrucken: Lambert Academic Publishing.