2. Applied Linguistics (Inspirations from neighbor disciplines)
Cosmas Rai Amenorvi; Richard Baffour Okyere
Abstract
This study investigates the major themes that permeate the anthems of the three oldest and the three youngest public universities in Ghana and how the themes are conveyed linguistically and literarily. The University of Ghana, University of Cape Coast, and University of Education, Winneba are purposively ...
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This study investigates the major themes that permeate the anthems of the three oldest and the three youngest public universities in Ghana and how the themes are conveyed linguistically and literarily. The University of Ghana, University of Cape Coast, and University of Education, Winneba are purposively sampled as representatives of the oldest public universities in Ghana. Representatives of the youngest universities sampled are University of Energy and Natural Resources, University of Health and Allied Sciences, and University of Mines. Findings reveal self-importance, knowledge, and religion as the major themes in the anthems of all six universities. These themes are projected linguistically by conscious content lexical items, namely, nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Literarily, these themes are cast in such literary devices as metaphor, hyperbole, pleonasm, and personification. There is a major difference between the presentation of the theme of self-importance between the two groups of universities in that generally, the oldest universities are more definite and categorical in projecting their self-importance while the youngest universities are rather indirect and less categorical in their presentation of the theme of self-importance. This may be as a result of conscious respect for the oldest universities.
2. Applied Linguistics (Inspirations from neighbor disciplines)
Cosmas Amenorvi; Gertrude Yidanpoa Grumah
Abstract
This paper investigates major themes espoused in the national anthems of English West Africa. Further, it seeks to find out how these themes are projected linguistically and literarily. Five English-speaking countries in West Africa, namely, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia and The Gambia, were ...
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This paper investigates major themes espoused in the national anthems of English West Africa. Further, it seeks to find out how these themes are projected linguistically and literarily. Five English-speaking countries in West Africa, namely, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia and The Gambia, were purposively sampled based on their colonial history, language and geographical location for this paper. Findings show that the major themes espoused in these national anthems are the themes of unity, religion, freedom and modesty. The themes are projected linguistically by conscious diction. Content lexical items – nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs – are preferred to non-content words in projecting these themes. Besides, literarily, these anthems employ figures of speech such as repetition, apostrophe, oxymoron, imagery, rhythm and metaphor to convey the various themes. These findings confirm the popular view in the study of national anthems that national anthems of countries which share colonial history, language and geographical location are similar in content and style.
