About

I specialize in syntax and semantics with a focus on African languages. I am interested in language typology, formal, experimental, and cognitive semantics. 

Curriculum Vitae

Education

PhD in Linguistics, University of Ghana, Legon (2008-2013)

BA in Linguistics and Information Studies, University of Ghana, Legon (2003-2007)

Research Interest

• Bare nouns and articles 
• Causative constructions
• Complementation
• Experimental semantics
• Information structure
• Serial verb constructions

Publications

Book
Duah, Reginald Akuoko. To appear. Causatives in Kwa – An intragenetic typology. AHA Series, NISC Publications. 

Journal Articles
Driemel, Imke, Abigail Bimpeh, and Reginald A. Duah. 2025. Resumption as a novel DP/NP diagnostic. Snippets 47, 4-6.

Omane, P., Benders, T., Duah, R. A., & Boll-Avetisyan, N. 2023. Diversifying language acquisition research can be (partly) achieved in urban societies and with simplified methodologies: Insights from multilingual Ghana. Journal of Child Language, 50(3), 532-536.

Appah, Clement K.I., Reginald Akuoko Duah, and Obadele Kambon. 2023. Cardinal numerals in Akan: A Construction Morphology account. Ghana Journal of Linguistics, 12(1), 48-72.

Duah, Reginald Akuoko. On reduplicated verbs as morphological causatives in Akan. Frankfurter Afrikanistisches Blätter (FAB) 30, 121-136.

Duah, Reginald Akuoko, E. Kweku Osam and Nana Aba Amfo. 2021. Event types and (in)directness of causation in Akan. Cognitive Semantics 7, 54-84.

Duah, Reginald Akuoko, Mira Grubic and Agata Renans. 2021. The combination of indefinite and definite determiners a cross-linguistic study. Sinn Und Bedeutung 25, 238-255.

Duah, Reginald Akuoko and Obadele Kambon. On the structure of analytic causatives in Akan. 2020. Journal of West African Languages 47(2), 1-22.

Duah, Reginald Akuoko and Stefan Savic. 2020. Tense or aspect? Semantics of the verbal suffix (-V) in Akan. SKASE Journal of Theoretical Linguistics 17(2), 77-94.

Mira Grubic, Agata Renans and Reginald Akuoko Duah. 2019. Focus, exhaustivity and existence in Akan, Ga and Ngamo. Linguistics 57(1), 221-268.

Bombi, Carla,  Mira Grubic, Agata Renans and Reginald Akuoko Duah. 2019. The semantics of the clausal determiner no in Akan (Kwa). Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 23(1), 181-199. 

Kambon, Obadele and Reginald Akuoko Duah. 2017. Non-African linguistics be like “This is a New Way to Quote!”. Ghana Journal of Linguistics 6(2), 85-115.

Appah, Clement K. I., Reginald Akuoko Duah and Obádélé Kambon. 2017. Akan noun-verb nominal compounds: The Exocentric synthetic view. Language Sciences 64, 1-15.

Duah, Reginald Akuoko. 2015. Exhaustive focus marking in Akan. Interdisciplinary Studies on Information Structure19, 1-28.

Osam, E. Kweku, Reginald Akuoko Duah and Afua M. Blay. 2011. The So-Called postpositions in Akan: A Reconsideration. Journal of West African Languages XXXVII (2): 107-118.

Book Chapters

Duah, Reginald Akuoko. 2025. Variation in Akan. In P. Kerswill, A. D’Arcy, and Y. Asahi (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Variationist Sociolinguistics (pp. 1-22). Oxford: Routlege. 

Duah, Reginald Akuoko. 2023. Expressions of pain in Akan. In E. Kweku Osam & Obadele Kambon (eds.), Aspects of Akan verbal semantics, 26-51. Accra: Linguistics Association of Ghana.

Obádélé Bakari Kambon, Reginald Akuoko Duah and Clement Kwamina Insaidoo Appah. 2019. Serial verb nominalization in Akan: The question of intervening elements. In Emily Clem, Peter Jenks & Hannah Sande (eds.), Theory and Description in African Linguistics: Selected papers from the 47th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, 395-422. Berlin: Language Science Press.

Duah, Reginald Akuoko and Sarah Marjie. 2012. Code-Switching in Written Communication: Factors and Motivations. In Lauer, Helen and Joana Boampong (eds.), Creating in diversity: Exploring our differences for nationhood, 97-121. Accra: Sub-Saharan Publishers.

Duah, Reginald Akuoko, Abigail Ayiglo and Afua M. Blay. 2010. The Dilemma of African American English identity: A Case of African language influence? In Lauer, Helen, Nana Aba Amfo and Jemima Anderson (eds.), Identity meets nationality: Voices from the humanities, 111-135. Accra: Sub-Saharan Publishers.

Conference Proceedings

Duah, Reginald Akuoko, Mira Grubic, & Agata Renans. 2023. The Combination of indefinite and definite determiners in Akan, Proceedings of TripleA 7: Linguistic Theory and Semantic Fieldwork, 7-22. Tübingen: University of Tübingen.

Duah, Reginald Akuoko and Malte Zimmermann. 2022. Situation anaphoricity in Hausa and Akan: A unified account. Proceedings of TripleA 8: Fieldwork Perspectives on the Semantics of Understudied Languages of Africa, Asia, Australia, and Oceania, 104-126. Singapore: University of Singapore.