This research has deeply examined the linguistic and rhetorical features of proverbs in Arabic language and literature. By comprehensively addressing the grammatical structures, narrative techniques and rhetorical features of the parables, the study has shown how impressive and instructive these elements are. The research also analyzed the role of parables in contemporary Arabic literature and how they approach modern social and cultural issues. The findings revealed the rich and diverse effects of parables on language and rhetoric, indicating that Arabic parables are powerful and effective literary tools in both historical and contemporary contexts. Additionally, the place of parables in contemporary Arabic literature, how this literary genre approaches social and cultural issues, and the effects of these approaches on society are detailed. In conclusion, this study highlights the effects of Arabic parables on language and rhetoric and how this literary form has evolved in modern times and its role in social communication. For future studies, it is recommended to conduct comparative analyzes with a wider range of texts and in various geographical and historical contexts. This will better reflect the cultural and historical diversity of Arabic parables and allow us to delve more deeply into the effects of modern technology and media.Full article

This study examines concord errors in academic writing among first-year students at Offinso College of Education in Ghana, aiming to identify common errors and propose remedial strategies for improvement. The population sample consists of first-year students at the college, reflecting a gender-sensitive distribution. The study adopts a mixed-methods research design, combining qualitative and quantitative analyses to explore the effects of concord errors on academic writing. Sampling techniques include purposive, quota sampling, and simple random sampling methods. Research instruments include questionnaires, interviews, and writing assessments to evaluate students' language skills. Data analysis involves identifying concord errors in students' writing and assessing the impact on their academic performance. The study concludes by recommending strategies to mitigate concord errors, such as targeted language practice, timely feedback, and awareness of grammatical conventions, to enhance students' writing proficiency and academic success.Full article

The thrust of this paper is to delve into the cohesive devices of political discourse as it pertains to Nelson Mandela‘s I Am the First Accused. The text was codified and the lexico-grammatical resources were examined in terms of semantic ties through the lens of Discourse analysis. The text was analysed based on Halliday and Hasan’s, 1976 five major cohesion classification categories: reference, demonstrative references, substitution, conjunction and lexical cohesion. The research indicated that there were sufficient phenomenon-example relationships within the text. In other words, there was adequate justification for claim statements within the text. There are also adequate cause-consequential relations in the text. Anaphoric references were commonplace in the text. It was also found out that cataphoric reference was sparingly used in the text. Analysis of the data also revealed that there were 30 instances of personal references, 21 demonstrative references, 3 instances of comparative references, and 6 instances of substitution. There were no instances of ellipsis. There were 7 instances of conjunction as a semantic link. There were 15 instances of repetition, 5 examples of synonyms and 3 instances of antonyms. It is recommended that public speakers and media practitioners take cognisance of cohesive devices and make their write-ups and speeches more cohesive and coherent for their audience and readers to decode meaning. Teachers of English as a second language should give serious attention to the teaching of cohesion as a semantic link within a text since cohesion and coherence aid the readability of a text. Cataphoric references sustain the interest of listeners and readers since they expect information yet to be given. Therefore, it is recommended that teachers of English as a second language should encourage their students to use some cataphors in their essays to create some kind of suspense in their readers. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) could also be used as an analytical tool to examine how power plays within the text.Full article

English language has become a global language due to first, the results of British colonial expansion and, global commercial interests. It has become a lingua franca in many countries, including Ghana. Qualitatively, the study adopted case study research design. The purpose of the study was to find out the perception and the attitude of Ghanaian English teachers towards the Native Speakers’ accents. The population of study consists of all ten (10) tutors in the Department of Languages, Offinso College of Education. Purposive and convenient sampling techniques were used to select the college and the tutors for the study. The main tool used for the collection of data was the semi-structured interview. Most of the participants revealed positive attitudes towards their own English accents which were different from that of the native speaker. Ghanaians are often faced with the challenge of which accent to use when communicating with each other and with outsiders. Most of the tutors from Offinso College of Education who participated in this study expressed positive responses to their non-native speaker’s accents. Not only did the idea of having a native speaker’s accent hold no attraction for them but they also found it strange because it would not represent their L1 identity. The majority of participants in this study preferred to use their non-native accents to attempt to adopt those of the native speaker. To them, there is only one distinction between English accents -you are either a native or non-native.Full article

The purpose of this study was to examine the empirical analysis of lexico-grammatical features used in the rhetorical structure of the Statement of the Research Problems of Master of Philosophy theses in the Faculties of Arts and Education at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. Qualitatively, content analysis was adopted for this study. Theses from the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Education at the University of Cape Coast were selected for this study. These theses were selected from 2012 to 2022 academic years to ensure currency in terms of the stipulated lexico-grammatical features used in the statement of the research problem. Purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used to select the university, two faculties (Faculty of Arts and Faculty of Education) and postgraduate theses for the study. The two faculties were purposively sampled. Eighty (80) theses were simple randomly sampled (Forty (40) theses each from the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Education). The main instrument used for data collection was content analysis. The data was analysed by the use of the interpretative technique based on the themes arrived at during the data collection of the statement of research problem from the post-graduate theses. The study indicated that integral citation was dominant in SRPs from the Faculty of Arts theses whereas non-integral citations were rather dominant in SRPs from the Faculty of Education theses. The use of adverbials to boost these claims was also found in only the SRPs from the Faculty of Arts theses. The use of hedging devices in SRPs from both Faculties to indicate a gap, and the use of simple noun phrases such as “the problem” and “the need” were mostly used to categorically state the research problem. It is recommended that a comparative study of theses in the two faculties in another university in Ghana be undertaken to identify how similar or otherwise the rhetorical structure and the lexico-grammatical features of the SRPs written by postgraduate students in the two faculties will be.Full article

Qualitatively, the study adopted a content analysis approach. There were eight State of the Nation addresses that the Ex-President John Kufour delivered during his tenure of office but only two of them are analysed in this study. The purposive sampling approach was used to select two State of the Nation addresses samples. The State of the Nation addresses of two years were picked for the study. The years are: 16^th February 2001, and 14^th February 2008. The qualitative data was analysed by the use of the interpretative technique based on the themes arrived at during the content analysis of the two speeches delivered by ex-president Kufour. Selective coding was used to code the occurrence of the categories of the epistemic modality expressions in the data. The epistemic modal elements as well as the sentences in which they occurred were then manually copied for further verification. These processes made the frequency count faster, more effective and more accurate. The data shows the relevant clauses or sentences containing modal expressions sampled within the contexts of epistemic meanings in the texts. The study has made it apparent that the expression of certainty is predominant. The data also indicates that the Ex-president has a greater tendency to use more modal adjuncts followed by the other modal auxiliary verb categories in expressing certainty in the selected State of the Nation Addresses during his State of the Nation Addresses. One question that arises is, why the Ex-president had a greater tendency to express more certainty in his State of the Nation Addresses. The answer is that Ex-president was fully sure and convinced of the information on the nation’s development and future programmes captured in the addresses. Thus, he appeared a confident, trustworthy and knowledgeable leader. Furthermore, the use of epistemic modality in the State of the Nation Addresses is neither haphazard nor coincidental. Instead, it is informed by reason of specific communicative intent. It is recommended that Public speakers and politicians should take the epistemic markers into consideration when writing the State of the Nation Address or any other texts in order to clarify shared opinion. It is also recommended that the Faculty of Language of the University of Education of Winneba should consider the concept of epistemic modality as a course of study in all various Language Departments including the Department of Communication Skills.Full article

The study sought to analyze the communicative functions of metaphors in Selected political speeches of Mr. John Dramani Mahama. Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA) developed by Jonathan Charteris-Black as an approach solely for the analysis of metaphors in political discourse was adopted as a theoretical framework for the study. The study is rooted in a qualitative research approach and grounded in textual analysis as the design. The sampling method adopted in the study was purposive, and the analysis was done in line with the research question posed. The study has shown that language plays a crucial role in human existence as a means of communicating world events. The study has also revealed that in Critical Discourse Analysis, metaphor is conceived as speech actions which build together to create coherent social interactions. This study has indicated that metaphor is a cognitive phenomenon other than a purely lexical one. The study concludes that metaphor is a deep-seated conceptual phenomenon that shapes the way we think (and not just the way we speak). Working inductively from the bottom up with a metaphor, CDA has been able to reveal a rich body of facts about discourse and demonstrate that CDA follows an elaborate, but systematic, set of rules or architecture. It is recommended that future studies could explore the possibility of quantifying the frequency of the occurrence of metaphors and known end results to find out whether there is a correlation between the number of metaphors and persuasion. It is also recommended that research could also be carried out into Ghanaian politics as a discourse community with a view to unearthing language basically associated with that vocation. A study could also be conducted into the use of other rhetorical/oratorical devices, e.g. the politicians’ use of analogy in their speeches.Full article

The purpose of this study was to examine the ideological motivations behind the use of metaphor in some selected speeches of former president John Dramani Mahama. Qualitatively, the study adopted a textual analysis research design. The study focused on Ghana’s political discourse with an emphasis on some selected speeches of former president John Dramani Mahama which were published between 4th July, 2012 to 6th January, 2017. A purposive sampling technique was used to select twenty (20) speeches of former president Mahama which were predominantly couched by layers of metaphors. The data were coded and metaphorically analysed in themes with interpretations. The analysis of metaphor in this study has shown that Critical Discourse Analysis is the best methodology for the analysis of spoken text in order to find out metaphorical meanings in discourse structures. The study revealed that Mahama’s use of metaphors was motivated by discursive practices such as hope, self-glorification, superiority and dominance and establishing commonality. The study indicated that metaphors are key discourse elements that foster understanding between and among participants in a political context. The study found that Mahama employs intertextuality as a rhetorical device. It is recommended that future researchers should devote time to look at the ideological implications of the use of intertextuality by Mahama.Full article

This paper investigated the role of informal diglossia on the learning of languages in Seventh Day Adventist (S. D. A) College of Education in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Mixed research approach was adopted for the study. Population of the study comprised one hundred level 300 students in S. D. A. College of Education in Asokore-Koforidua. Purposive, convenient and simple random techniques were to select the college, level 300 students for the study. The main instruments used for data collection for study were questionnaire and interview. Data were analyzed in line with Speech Accommodation Theory, where convergence and divergence were identified. The findings of the study revealed that the S. D. A. College of Education has a multilingual speech community where languages are in contact; students select their language of communication, depending upon their speech partners based on High or Low variety. Predominantly, students code-switch between languages specifically Twi and English language. In the midst of the multilingual environment, students developed the speaking of some Ghanaian languages they could not speak before coming to the college. The study also concluded that there was adult language acquisition in colleges; besides, in a formal academic setting where students were expected to communicate in the formal language, they rather gave were much higher attention to Ghanaian languages.Full article

This paper examined the language of persuasion and negotiation in the Ghanaian market context using a local community market (Agartha Market) in Koforidua as a case study. It investigates how the language of persuasion and negotiation is couched in the context of the market by both traders and customers. The theoretical framework within which this study is hinged is the stylistic theory of Leech and Short [1]. Specifically, the grammatical and figure-of-speech prong of the theory have been used. While observation and audio recordings were used to collect the data, the content descriptive method was used in the description and analysis of the data. The findings revealed that, relative to sentence complexity, persuasion and negotiation made adequate use of compound sentences than simple sentence structures. While simple sentence structures are used by traders to attract customers’ attention and arouse their psychological interest and curiosity, customers used them in negotiations for mainly interrogative and position-shift purposes. Compound and complex structures were used by traders for elaborative purposes in order to espouse the good qualities that are inherent in their products in order to convince their customers to buy their wares. Figuratively, repetition, hyperbole, and suspense are the key tropes used. These tropes are dominant in persuasion than in negotiation. Again, while the language of persuasion is monologue that of negotiation is dialogue. Code-mixing is also common characteristic in the language of negotiation and persuasion. The dominant local language (Twi) and the official language (English) are usually used in the communication process. This research thus has implication for research and pedagogy as it extends the literature and can also influence the restructuring of educational polices especially those related to language since society and school (education) are intricately related.Full article