About

I am the first female Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana and a Professor of Linguistics. I am an experienced academic and university administrator, bringing innovation, resourcefulness, and tact to my professional engagements. As Vice-Chancellor, I am driven by two key notions – technology as an enabler and a devotion to human welfare. I have acquired extensive multi-cultural experience through various professional engagements in more than thirty countries in Africa, Europe, Asia, North America and Australia. I am the Founding President of the African Humanities Association (AHA), Vice-Chair of the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA), President of the Federation of Modern Languages and Literatures (FILLM), a member of the Consultation Board of the International Pragmatics

Education

PhD in Linguistics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, (September 2007)
MPhil in Linguistics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, (July 2001)
BA French and Linguistics, University of Ghana (July 1996)

Research Interest

• Pragmatics (and semantics) of function words
• Language use in specific domains (health, gender, politics, migration)
• Multilingualism
• Information structure
• Grammaticalisation

Publications

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Amfo, Nana Aba Appiah & Gordon A. Awandare (2024). Equitable collaborations: Key to sustainable futures. In Ana Mari Cauce, Yves Flückiger and Ivanka Popovíc (eds.), The New Road to Success: Contributions of Universities towards more Resilient Societies, 199-210. Geneva: Glion Colloquium ISCA Livres.

Amfo, Nana Aba Appiah & Dorothy P. Agyepong. (2023). Making the secular sacred: Sociolinguistic domains and performance in Christian worship. In Sinfree Makoni and Ana Deumert (eds.), From Southern Theory to Decolonizing Sociolinguistics: Voices, Questions and Alternatives, 90-108. Durham: Duke University

Amuzu, Evershed Kwasi, Rescue Elvis, Boakye Bernard & Nana Aba Appiah 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, 146-165. New York and London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

Agyepong, Dorothy P. & Nana Aba Appiah Amfo. (2022). 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, 86-104. Oxford: Routledge (Taylor & Francis).

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

Amfo, Nana Aba Appiah. 2021. Managing authorship in (socio)linguistic collaborations. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 267-268. 21-26.

Aziato, Lydia, Cyrelene Amoah Boampong, Nana Yaw B. Sapong & Nana Aba Appiah Amfo. 2020. A History of Nursing and Midwifery in Ghana 1900 – 2019. Accra: CSIR-INSTI.

Amfo, Nana Aba Appiah & Clement K. I. Appah. 2019. Lexicalization of Akan diminutive forms: Form, meaning and motivation. Linguistik Online 94. 3-18.

Amuzu, Evershed K., Yvonne Nutakor & Nana Aba Appiah Amfo. 2019. Multilingualism and language practices of Nigerien migrants in Ghana. Current Issues in Language Planning 20 (4). 389-402.
DOI: 10.1080/14664208.2019.1582944

Amfo, Nana Aba Appiah & Jemima A. Anderson. 2019. Multilingualism and language policies in the African context: Lessons from Ghana. Current Issues in Language Planning 20 (4). 333-337. (Introduction to a Special Issue in honour and to the memory of Professor Tope Omoniyi) https://doi.org/10.1080/14664208.2019.1582945.

Amfo, Nana Aba Appiah & Tope Omoniyi. 2019. Sociolinguistic domain analysis, linguistic practices and performance in religious worship. In Andrey Rosowsky (ed.). Aspects of Performance in Faith Settings: Heavenly Acts, 76-89. New Castle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Amfo, Nana Aba Appiah. 2018. The encoding of information structure in African languages. In Augustine Agwuele & Adams Bodomo (eds.). The Handbook of African Linguistics, 243-261. Oxford: Routledge (Taylor & Francis).

Houphouet, Ekua E., Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, Eugene Dordoye & Rachel Thompson 2018. Interactions in psychiatric care consultation in Akan speaking communities. Communication & Medicine 15 (1). 40-52.

Amfo, Nana Aba Appiah. 2018. Commentary on “Omphile and his soccer ball: colonialism, methodology, translanguaging research”. Multilingual Margins 5 (2). 20-23.

Diabah, Grace & Nana Aba Appiah Amfo. 2018. To dance or not to dance: Masculinities in Akan proverbs: Traditional values versus contemporary realities. Ghana Journal of Linguistics 7 (2). 179-198.

Nutakor, Yvonne E. & Nana Aba Appiah Amfo. 2018. Language socialization practices of children in multilingual Accra, Ghana. Legon Journal of the Humanities 29 (1). 166-198.

Amfo, Nana Aba Appiah, Ekua E. Houphouet, Eugene Dordoye & Rachel Thompson. 2018. “Insanity is from home”: The expression of mental health challenges in Akan. International Journal of Language and Culture 5 (1). 1-28.

Amfo, Nana Aba Appiah, Tope Omoniyi, Nii Teiko Tagoe, Obadele Kambon & Kofi Korankye Saah. 2018. Therapeutic Communication Competencies for Nurses and Midwives. Accra: Digibooks

Agyepong, Dorothy P., Nana Aba Appiah Amfo & E. Kweku Osam. 2017. Literal and metaphorical usages of ‘eat’ and ‘drink’ in Akan. Nordic Journal of African Studies 26 (1). 62-78.

Amfo, Nana Aba Appiah. 2016. “I am a pastor…not a politician”: Language, politics and religion in Ghana’s 2012 elections campaign. Issues in Political Discourse Analysis 4 (2). 135-153

Kambon, Obadele, Kweku Osam & Nana Aba Appiah Amfo. 2015. A case for re-visiting definitions of serial verb constructions: Evidence from Akan serial verb nominalization. Studies in African Linguistics 44 (2). 75-99

Diabah, Grace & Nana Aba Appiah Amfo. 2015. Caring supporters or daring usurpers?: Representation of women in Akan proverbs. Discourse and Society 26. 3-28.

Apenteng, Monica Amoah & Nana Aba Appiah Amfo. 2014. The form and function of loanwords in Akan. Nordic Journal of African Studies 23 (4). 221-242.

Yankah, Kwesi, Kofi K. Saah & Nana Aba Appiah Amfo (eds.). 2014. A Legon Reader in Ghanaian Linguistics. Oxfordshire: Ayebia Clarke Publishing Company.

Amfo, Nana Aba Appiah 2014. The semantics and pragmatics of sentential coordination in Ga and Ewe. In Kwesi Yankah, Kofi K. Saah, & Nana Aba Appiah Amfo (eds.). A Legon Reader in Ghanaian Linguistics, 68-86. Oxfordshire: Ayebia Clarke Publishing