About

I am a syntactician and discourse analyst. I am interested in the documentation, preservation and promotion of Ghanaian languages in all spheres of life, especially in education. I also take a keen interest in the dynamics of interpreting between Ghanaian languages and English in the courtroom.

Education

PhD Rice University, Houston August 2017
MA Rice University, Houston December 2013
BA University of Ghana, Legon May 2007

Research Interest

• Syntax
• Ga linguistics
• Language in education
• Discourse analysis 
• Interpreting 
• Language documentation and description

Publications

Obeng, Samuel Gyasi and Akua Campbell. 2024. Resistive speech by populist Ghanaian political actors: A diachronic study in language and liberty. In Isabel Íñigo Mora & Christina Lastres-López (eds.), Discourse Approaches to an Emerging Age of Populist Politics, 163–184. Springer.

Obeng, Samuel Gyasi and Akua Campbell. 2024. Repair in Ghanaian judicial discourse. International Journal of Legal Discourse. https://doi.org/10.1515/ijld-2024-2002 

Campbell, Akua. 2024. Sequentiality – A novel use of the Perfect in Gã. Studies in Language. https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.23044.cam

Campbell, Akua and Samuel Gyasi Obeng. 2023. Language and power: Discursive strategies employed by interpreters in Ghanaian district courts. Interpreting 26 (1), 55–79 https://doi.org/10.1075/intp.00099.cam

Obeng, Samuel Gyasi and Akua Campbell. 2023. Turn taking in Ghanaian judicial discourse. Legon Journal of the Humanities. Vol. 34(2). 80 – 108. https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ljh.v34i2.4

Diabah, Grace, Agyepong, Dorothy and Akua Campbell. 2023. To be “a man” is not easy! Masculinities and discourses of fear and anxiety among male COVID-19 survivors in Ghana. In Gavin Brookes & Malgorzata Chalupnik (eds.), Masculinities and Discourses of Men’s Health, 369 – 393. Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.

Bonney, Edwin & Akua Campbell. 2022. Dominant English centered policies in education marginalize Ghanaian languages and literacies. In Cynthia Szymanski Sunal (ed.), Effects of Government Mandates and Policies on Public Education in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East, 97 – 117. Charlotte: Information Age Publishing.

Campbell, Akua. 2022a. The perfect in Gã. Ghana Journal of Linguistics 11(1): 1 – 27. https://www.ajol.info/index.php/gjl/article/view/227492

Campbell, Akua. 2022b. The syntax and semantics of Gã future markers. Acta Linguistica Hafniensa. 54(1): 40 – 72. https://doi.org/10.1080/03740463.2022.1992593

Campbell, Akua. 2021. A historical analysis of Gã future morphemes. Frankfurt African Studies Bulletin, Vol. 30. 93 – 120.

Campbell, Akua & Jemima Anderson 2021. Language choice in churches in indigenous Gã towns: A multilingual balancing act. Multilingua, 42(4): 445 – 472. https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2021-0063

Campbell, Akua. 2021. Grammatical nominalizations in Ga͂. In: Sung-Yeo Chung and Masayoshi Shibatani (eds.), Nominalization theory and linguistic analysis, 399 – 427. Osaka: Osaka University Press.

Campbell, Akua 2020. Relative clauses as grammatical nominalizations: Evidence from Akan. SKASE Journal of Theoretical Linguistics, 17(2) 23–58. http://www.skase.sk/Volumes/JTL44/pdf_doc/02.pdf

Amuzu, Evershed, Akua Campbell & Seth Ofori. 2020. “That’s not my understanding” – Interpretation in the Ghanaian multilingual court. Language and Dialogue, 10(3) 389 – 421. https://doi.org/10.1075/ld.00076.amu

Campbell, Akua 2014. Motion expression in Ga narratives. Journal of West African languages. 41(2) 69 – 101.