2011 Ewe encyclopedia dictionary of health. Legon-Accra: Department of Linguistics, University of Ghana (with Felix K. Ameka, Alan S. Duthie, Kofi Dorvlo, Evershed Amuzu, Kafui A. Ofori, Paul Agbedor, Alex Dzameshie, & Yvonne Agbetsoamedo).
2015 Language endangerment and documentation in Africa. Amsterdam: Benjamins (with Brent Henderson & Fiona McLaughlin).
2010 Studies in Kwa syntax. Dordrecht: Springer (with Enoch O. Aboh)
Refereed Journal Articles
Accepted Initial prominence and progressive vowel harmony in Tutrugbu. Phonological Data & Analysis (with Adam McCollum)
2017 Divergence and convergence among Ghana-Togo Mountain languages. In Language Typology and Linguistic Universals (STUF). With Felix Ameka
2015 Language use at home and performance in English composition in multilingual Ghana AAeO, Vol. 2015. (urn:nbn:de:0009-10-42168) . With Sika Ahadzie and Felix Ameka. https://www.afrikanistik-aegyptologie-online.de/archiv/2015/4216/ 2013 Serialising languages: Satellite-framed, verb-framed or neither. In Ghana Journal of Linguistics, Vol 2 (1), 19-38. With Felix Ameka (http://www.ajol.info/index.php/gjl/article/view/90783)
2013 Cross-linguistic influence in language creation: assessing the role of the Gbe languages in the formation of the Creoles of Surinam. Lingua 129 (2013), 1-8. With Bettina Migge and Donald Winford
2013 Possibility and necessity modals in Gbe and Surinamese Creoles. Lingua 129 (2013), 67-95. With Margot van den Berg and Marleen vd Vate 2011 A tribute to Norval Smith. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 26(2), 235-246. With E.O. Aboh, A. Bruyn, S. Kouwenberg, R.R. Meade, P. Muysken, M. van den Berg & T. Veenstra
2010 Locative expression in Tutrugbu: losing typological characteristics due to contact. Journal of West African Languages 37, 93-118
2010 Documenting endangered languages in Africa: an introduction. With Brent Henderson. Journal of West African Languages 37
2009 Noun classes in Tutrugbu (Nyagbo). Journal of West African Languages 36, 37-56
2007 Principles of event segmentation in language: the case of motion events. With J. Bohnemeyer., N. J. Enfield, I. Ibarretxe-Antuñano, S. Kita, F. Lüpke, and F. K. Ameka, (2007): Language 83: 3, 495-532
2007 “Cut” and “break” verbs in Sranan. Cognitive Linguistics vol. 18:2, 231-239
2007 “Cut” and “break” verbs in Ewe and the causative alternation construction. With F. K. Ameka. Cognitive Linguistics 18:2, 241-250
2007 Gbe and other West African Sources of Suriname creole semantic structures: implications for creole genesis. With G. Huttar and F. K. Ameka, Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, 22:1, 57-72
2007 “Cut” and “break” verbs in Gbe and Suriname Creoles. With F. K. Ameka. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages.22:1, 37-55
2005 The basic locative construction in Gbe and Suriname creoles. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 20:2, 229-267
2004 Auxiliaries in serialising languages: on COME and GO verbs in Sranan and Ewe. Lingua 114, 473-494
2001 Pointing left in Ghana: how a taboo on the use of the left hand influences gestural practices. With S. Kita Gesture 1 (1), 73-95
Contribution to Edited Volumes (refereed)
2018 Unbounded harmony is not always myopic: evidence from Tutrugbu. In Wm. G. Bennett, Lindsay Hracs, and Dennis Ryan Storoshenko (eds). Proceedings of the 35th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (with Adam McCollum)
2017 Language endangerment, documentation and revitalization. In Vossen, R. and Dimmendaal, G. (eds) HAL.(chapter 43)
2015 Introduction. In Essegbey, J., Henderson, B., and Mc Laughlin, F. (eds.) Language endangerment and documentation in Africa. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. With Brent Henderson and Fiona Mc Laughlin
2015 “Is this my language?” Developing a writing system for an endangered-language community. In Essegbey, J., Henderson, B., and Mc Laughlin, F. (eds.) Language endangerment and documentation in Africa. Amsterdam: John Benjamins
2014: Verb semantics and argument structure in the Gbe and Sranan. In Muysken, Pieter and Smith, Norval (eds.) Surving the middle passage: the West Africa – Surinam Sprachbund (Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 175-206
2014: Conclusion: Feature distribution in the Benin-Suriname Transatlantic Sprachbund. In Muysken, Pieter and Smith, Norval (eds.) Surving the middle passage: the West Africa – Surinam Sprachbund (Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter With Pieter Muysken, Enoch Aboh, Margot van den Berg , Norval Smith, Tonjes Veenstra and Kofi Yakpo
2014: Gestures in West Africa: left hand taboo in Ghana. In Müller, Cienki, Fricke, Ladewig, McNeill, Teßendor (eds.) 2014, Body Language Communication (HSK 38.2), de Gruyter, 1161-1169
2013 Touch ideophones in Nyagbo. In Orie, Olanike Ola and Sanders, Karen W. (eds.) Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference of African Linguistics: Linguistic Interfaces in African Languages. Cascadilla Press, 235-243
2012 Aspectual contrasts in Tutrugbu (Nyagbo). In Connell, Bruce and Rolle, Nicholas (eds.) Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of African Linguistics:African Languages in Contact. Cascadilla Press, 40 -49
2011 Configuraciones temáticas atípicas y el uso de predicados complejos en perspectiva tipológica [Atypical thematic configurations and the use of complex predicates in typological perspective]. In A. L. Munguía (ed.), Colección Estudios Lingüísticos. Vol. I: Fonología, morfología, y tipología semántico-sintáctica [Collection Linguistic Studies. Vol 1: Phonology, morphology, and semantico-syntactic typology). Hermosillo: Universidad de Sonora. 173-194. With Bohnemeyer, J., N. J. Enfield, J. A. Majid, and M. van Staden.
2011 The Macro-Event property: the segmentation of motion paths and causal chains. With J. Bohnemeyer, N. J. Enfield, and S. Kita In Bohnemeyer J. and Pederson E (eds.) Event Representation in Language: Encoding Events at the Language-Cognition Interface. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 43-67
2010 The phonology syntax interface. With E.O. Aboh. In Aboh. E.O. and Essegbey, J. (eds.) Studies in Kwa syntax. Dordrecht: Springer, 1-10 (http://www.springer.com/linguistics/comparative+linguistics/book/978-90-481-3188-4)
2010 General properties of the clause. With E.O. Aboh. In Aboh. E.O. and Essegbey, J. (eds.) Studies in Kwa syntax. Dordrecht: Springer, 39-64 (http://www.springer.com/linguistics/comparative+linguistics/book/978-90-481-3188-4)
2010 Inherent complement verbs and the basic double object construction in Gbe. In Aboh. E.O. and Essegbey, J. (eds.) Studies in Kwa syntax. Amsterdam: Springer, 117-194 (http://www.springer.com/linguistics/comparative+linguistics/book/978-90-481-3188-4)
2010 Does Tutrugbu (Nyagbo) have adjectives? In M.E. Kropp Dakubu, N.A. Amfo, E.K. Osam, K.K. Saah and G. Akanlig-Pare, Studies in the languages of the Volta Basin 6(2), 149-159
2009 On assessing the ethnolinguistic vitality of Ga in Accra. In F. Mc Laughlin (ed) The languages of urban Africa. London: Continuum, 115-130
2008 The potential morpheme in Ewe. In F. Ameka and ME Kropp Dakubu (eds) Aspect and modality in Kwa languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins 195-214
2008 Intransitive verbs in Ewe and the unaccusativity hypothesis. In M. Bowerman and P. Brown (eds). Cross-linguistic perspectives on argument structure. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. 213-230
2006 Elements of the Ewe grammar of space. With F. K. Ameka. In S.C. Levinson and D.P. Wilkins (eds). Grammars of Space. Cambridge University Press. 359-399
2005 Japanese Translation of Kita and Essegbey (2001). In M. Hiraga and S. Ide (Ed.), Koza shakai-gengo kagaku [Lectures in sociolinguistics] (pp.130-154). Tokyo: Hitsuzi Shobo (translated by Kyoko Watanabe)
2004 Iconicity and motion verbids. In Dakubu, ME and E.K. Osam (eds). Studies in the languages of the Volta Basin, vol. 2. 24-35
2003 Demystifying inherent complement verbs in Ewe. In A. Zribi-Hetz and P. Souzet (eds). Typologie des langues d’Afrique et universaux de la grammaire. Paris: L’Harmattan, 97-126
2003 Left-hand taboo on direction-indicating gestures in Ghana: when and why people still use left-hand gestures. With S. Kita. In M. Rector, I. Poggi and N. Trigo (eds.) Gestures. Meaning and Use. Porto: Gráficos Reunidos, 301-306
2002 The syntax of inherent complement verbs in Ewe. In F. Ameka and
Contributions to encyclopedia and edited volume
2005 Ewe. In Encyclopedia of Languages and Linguistics vol. 4, Keith Brown (ed). Oxford: Elsevier, 371-373
2005 Ewe and the Gbe languages. In Encyclopedia of Linguistics, 2 vols., Philipp Strazny (ed). New York: Fitzroy Dearborn
2003 On definiteness asymmetry in double object constructions. In K. Lebikaza (ed.) Proceedings of the 3rd World Congress of African Linguistics, Cologne: Rudiger Koeppe, 127-141
Language Learning Materials
2012 Online Beginning Akan Textbook. With Emmanuel Amo Ofori and Maia Bass
2011 Ɛkla Tutrugbu. Legon: School of communication Studies Press. With Glover Kofi, Glover Judith, Togbe Osunu V
2008 Mido Ʋegbe. Leiden University. Trial Edition, With Ameka, Felix
Book Reviews
2006 Review of Bettina Migge’s Creole formation as language contact. In Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages 21:1
2001 Review of Anne-Marie Brousseau’s Réalisations argumentales et classes de verbs en fongbe. In Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 22 (2001), 81-112
Working Papers
1994 Towards a multi-faceted account for the binding of the logophor ye in Ewe. University of Trondheim Working Papers in Linguistics 22, 132-153.
1993 The X-Bar theory and the Ewe noun phrase. University of Trondheim Working Papers in Linguistics 19, 52-69
Work in Progress (Book)
A reference grammar of Tutrugbu (Nyagbo)
PRESENTATIONS
INVITED
2016 “Language, religion and Culture in Africa.” Conference on Integrating African Studies Across the Curriculum, Middle Georgia State University, February 12
2015 “The remnant languages of Ghana and Togo.” Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, November 10
2015 “Religion in Africa.” African Studies Worshop, Santa Fe, November 20
2015 Relationships are sweet but cutting cloth is painful: the language of clothing in Ghana. Gallery Talk at the Harn Museum, June 14
2007 Locative predication typology and the stative in Akan. Amsterdam Center for Cognitive Linguistics, University of Amsterdam (March 29th)
2004 “Locating entities in Nyagbo”, delivered at the Department of Asian and African Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin (May 2004)
2002 “The Creole-genesis debate”, delivered as part of graduate course on Pidgins and Creole, Leiden University (May 2002)
2001 “Substrate influence as an example of contact. Delivered as part of graduate seminar on language contact, Leiden University (November 2001)
2001 “From West Africa to Surinam: a historical trip aboard a language boat”, delivered as part of inter-disciplinary lecture series on African studies, Leiden University (October 2001).
Conferences, Colloqiums, and Workshops (International)
2018 On GIVE and DO causative constructions in Ewe. Paper presented at the 49th Annual Conference of African Linguistics, Michigan State University, Lansing, March 21 – 25
2017 The influence of Akan on the linguistic encoding of cutting and breaking events in Dwang New frontiers in Language Studies in Ghana, University of Ghana, Legon,February 28 (with Dorothy Agyepong) 2017 “Na in Akan: conjunction, tense and focus, or none of these?” Paper presented at the 30th West African Linguistics Congress, University of Education, Winneba, July 31st – August 5
2017 Making sense of two causal constructions in Ewe. Paper presented at the 8th South East African Languages and Literatures Forum (SEALLF), Chapel Hill, North Carolina, September 29 – October 1
2017 Towards a Unified Account for NA in Akan. Paper presented at the 48th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, Indiana University, Bloomington, March 30 – April 2 (With Galia Hatav)
2016 Oral Traditions and Linguistic Reconstruction. Paper presented at the 7th SEALLF Conference, Winston Salem, 9/29 –10/2, 2016
2015 Cutting across the Kwa divide. Workshop in Honor of Lars Hellan. University of Vienna, November 7
2015 The Basic Locative Construction in Dwang. Presented at the 46th Annual Conference of African Linguistic, March 26 – 28. University of Oregon
2015: Fishing for marriage: A case of disappearing traditional knowledge system in Dwang. Paper presented at the The Southeastern Regional Seminar in African Studies (SERSAS) and the SouthEast Africanist Network (SEAN) Conference. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Feb 6-7
2014: Ideologies and home language use practices: Effects on performance in school language in a Ghanaian Senior High School. Paper presented at The British Association of Applied Linguistics Languages in Africa SIG Annual Meeting on the theme “The social life of language and language development in Africa” , SOAS May 3rd. With Sika Ahadzie and Felix Ameka
2014: The influence of Akan on the linguistic encoding of Cutting and Breaking events in Dwang. Presented at the 45th Annual Conference of African Linguistics, April 17-19, University of Kansas.
2014: Language use at home and English competence in multilingual Ghana. Presented at the Conference on Language, Learning and Culture, April 11-12 Virginia International University. With Sika Ahadzie and Felix Ameka
2013 Vowel harmony in Tutrugbu. Paper presented at the Workshop on 10 Years of GTM Research in the Netherlands, May 31, Leiden University
2013 Vowel harmony in Tutrugbu. Paper presented at the 44th Annual Conference of African Linguistics, Georgetown University, March 7 – 10
2012 “Touch ideophones in Tutrugbu”. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of African Linguistics, Tulane University, New Orleans, March 15 – 17.
2011 Processes of semantic-structure transfer. Paper presented at the Workshop on Transatlantic Sprachbund, Catholic University Nijmegen, January 21st.
2011 The dilemma of a language documenter. Paper presented at the 2011 Ghana Togo Mountain Languages Workshop, Ho. August 7 – 12
2010 “Is this my language?”: Preparing documentary outputs for an endangered-language community. Paper presented at the Workshop on Africa’s response to Language Endangerment, University of Florida, December 2-5
2010 Vowel harmony in Tutrugbu. Paper presented at the International Workshop on Ghana-Togo-Mountain Groups, University of Education, Winneba, July 24th
2010 Possibility and necessity modals in Gbe, Sranan and Saramaccan (and Negerhollands). (With Margot van den Berg and Marleen van de Vate). Paper
presented at the Workshop on Surinamese Creoles. Ohio State University,
Columbus, May 28th.
2010 Tense-Aspect system in Tutrugbu (Nyagbo). Paper presented at the 41st Annual Conference of African Linguistics, University of Toronto. May 6th – 8th
2009 Motion expression in Nyagbo frog-story narrations. Presented at the 40th Annual Conference of African Linguistics, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign
2009 Are there adjectives in Tutrugbu? Presented at the Legon-Trondheim Colloquim on Kwa languages. January 12- 16th. University of Ghana, Legon
2008 How to hammer a shirt apart (and talk about it): Unusual instrument-theme configurations and complex predicates across languages.(With Juegen Bohnemeyer, Nick Enfield, Asifa Majid, Miriam van Staden). Presented at the X Encuentro Internacional de Linguistica en el Noroeste. University of Sonora. November 12-15, 2008
2008 How functional are the verbs in Gbe SVCs? Presented at the Sino-Kwa conference on Functional Projections, October 31st –November 1st, Leiden University.
2008 Motion expression in Nyagbo frog-story narrations. Presented at the International Workshop on GTM Languages, 3-8 August, 2008, Ho
2008 Making sense of negation in Nyagbo. Presented at the 39th Annual Conference of African Linguistics, University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, April 18th – 20th
2007 Probing West African influence on the formation of New World Creoles. With Don Winford. Presented at the Ohio State University (OSU) Language Network Spring Symposium, OSU, April 7
2007 Locative predication in Nyagbo. Round Table Conference on the Languages of the Volta Basin (West Africa), Leiden University, March 28
2007 Locative predication in Nyagbo: losing typological characteristics due to contact. 38th Annual Conference of African Linguistics, University of Florida, Gainesville, March 22nd – 25th:
2007 The changing socio-linguistic scene: a look at Nyagbo and Accra. Ghana-Day Symposium, University of Florida, Gainesville, March 2
2006 Noun classes in Nyagbo: a preliminary analysis. International workshop on the description and documentation of Ghana-Togo-Mountain languages, July 24th-29th, Ho
2006 On assessing the relative ethnolinguistic vitality of Ga and Akan in Accra. Languages of Urban Africa: An international Workshop, University of Florida, Gainesville, March 9-10
2005 In the quest for the original speakers of Tutrugbu. 48th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, November 17th-20th Washington DC
2005 Distinguishing the grammatical stative from the lexical-state verb in Akan. 36th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, Savannah, Georgia, March 31 April 3
2004 The southern Ghana-Togo Mountain languages. With K. Dorvlo and F. K. Ameka. Conference on Endangered Languages at the Free University, Amsterdam, 26th August.
2004 Iconicity and motion verbids. Annual Colloquim of Legon-Trondheim Project
2004 Suriname creole semantic structures from West Africa: Gbe and other sources. With G. Huttar and F. K. Ameka. Society of Pidgin and Creole Linguistics.
2003 The use of ini in Sranan. With A. Bruyn. Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics, Honolulu, 14th – 17th August
2003 Iconicity and verbal status in Gbe languages. 33rd Colloquim of African Languages and Linguistics, Leiden University, 25th – 27th August
2003 Argument structure in Gbe and Sranan. The trans-Atlantic Sprachbund Workshop, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies, Wassenaar, 23-26 August 2003
2003 CUT and BREAK in Gbe and Sranan. The trans-Atlantic Sprachbund Workshop, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies, Wassenaar, 23-26 August 2003
2003 Argument Structure in Gbe and Sranan. Colloque ‘Les créoles et la typologie aréale / Creoles and areal typology’ Universiteit van Amsterdam, 28-29 March 2003
2002 Multiple-Path expression in SVCs: a case of iconicity? Serial Day, University of Cologne December 2002
2002 Cut and break verbs in Sranan. 14th Biennial Conference, Society for Carribean languages, Trinidad. 12-15 August 2002
2002 Indeterminacy and compositionality: the case of inherent complement verbs in Ewe. Conference on linguistic theory and Sub-saharan languages. Université de Paris-3. March 2002
2002 Moving into and out of Sranan. With A. Bruyn. Linguistics in the Netherlands (TIN-Dag), January 2002
2002 Moving from verbs to prepositions in Gbe (West Africa). With E. Aboh and F. K. Ameka. International Conference on Adpositions, Leuven, January
2002 Moving into and out of Sranan. With A. Bruyn. International Conference on Adpositions, Leuven, January 2002
2001 Motion expression in Sranan: evidence for relexification? Society for Pidgins and Creoles, University of Coimbra, June 2001
2001 The stative vs the continuative: distinguishing lexical from syntactic categories in Akan. ALI Akan II seminar, May 2001
2001 Serialising languages: satellite-framed, verb-framed or neither. With F. K. Ameka. 32nd Annual Conference on African Linguistics, Berkeley, March 2001
2000 On why the a-morpheme is not a tense marker. West African Linguistic Congress, University of Ghana, Legon. 15-18 August
2000 On definiteness asymmetry in double object constructions. Third World Congress on African Linguistics. Université de Benin, Lome. 21-26 August
2000 The effect of the Ghanaian left-hand taboo on pointing gestures. With S. Kita. Conference on Gestures: meaning and use, Porto, April
1999 Reciprocal, reflexive and logophoric expressions in Ewe. Workshop on anaphoric expressions. With F. K. Ameka. OTS Institute of Linguistics, Utrecht University, 9-10 October
1999 Semantically underspecified verbs in Ewe: an analysis of the verb DZE in Role and Reference Grammar. Role and Reference Grammar. With F. K. Ameka and D. P. Wilkins. Conference July 23-25, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
1998 On the semantics of do, an inherent complement verb. 16th West African Linguistics Congress, University of Cocody, Abidjan. August
1998 Inherent complement verbs and the unaccusativity hypothesis. Workshop on Cross-linguistic Perspective on Argument Structure: Implications for Learnability, MPI, Nijmegen. June
1997 The syntax of inherent complement verbs. 2nd World Congress of African Linguistics. 28 July – 2 August Leipzig
1997 One-place predicates in Ewe and the unaccusativity hypothesis. Fachbeirat, Max-Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen
1997 The semantics of one-place predicates in Ewe. Workshop on Verb Construction Typology, Linguistics Department, University of Trondheim. September
1996 The syntax and semantics of double object verbs in Ewe. 26th Colloqium on African Languages and Linguistics, University of Leiden. August
1995 Some sub-atomic motion verbs in Ewe. 2nd Nordic Seminar on African Linguistics, Linguistics Department, University of Trondheim, July
Local Presentations
2009 Motion expression in Nyagbo frog-story narrations. UF Department of Linguistics Seminar, September
2007 Africanisms in the Americas: African Students’ Union Forum, University of Florida, April 19,
2005 Africanisms in America. Black Student Leadership Conference, Gainesville, 22nd January
2005 “Ins” and “Outs” in the Trans-Atlantic Sprachbund. AALL Faculty Seminar, January 13
2002 Breaking money across the Trans-Atlantic channel. University of Leiden Center for Linguistics Seminar, May 15
1998 Towards a grammar of inherent complement verbs’. Ghana Day, Department of African Linguistics, Leiden University, May
REVIEWS FOR ACADEMIC JOURNALS, PRESSES & GRANTS
Occasional Reviewer
Journal of African Languages and Linguistics (JALL)
Journal of Pragmatics (JOP)
Journal of Pidgin and Creole Linguistics (JPCL)
Journal of West African Languages (JWAL)
Legon Journal of Humanities Lingua
Proceedings of the Annual conference of African Linguistics
Book Proposal
Cambridge University Press
Grant Proposals
The Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project at SOAS,
The National Science Foundation
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada