A LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF STANCE MARKERS IN AKAN

ABSTRACT In our everyday activity, language plays a tremendous part in our daily interaction with each other. Arguing, taking position and making judgment happens daily in our interaction with one another. The need for stance expression and making the position of a speaker clear about what they are discussing is well documented in the literature (Biber, 2006; Kelly & Bazerman, 2003; Hyland, 2005; 2008; Molino, 2010; Myers, 1989; Williams, 2006). This thesis examined the stance markers used in Akan discourse. (Akan is a Niger-Congo Kwa language, widely spoken by both natives and non-natives in Ghana, and part of Cote d‟Ivoire). Using a qualitative case study, data were collected from 450 purposively sampled native speakers of Asante Twi at social gatherings, class discussions, and focus group discussion in the Abrepo community for textual analysis. The analysis revealed that Akan native speakers use phrases and clauses as the structural patterns to produce stance markers. Again the types of stances used by the speakers in their conversations were found to be epistemic, attitude, evidential, style and deontic. It was also discovered that the markers were used to express certainty, doubt, imprecision and other functions such as attitude, evidence, style and deontic in conversation. Based on the results, it is argued that it is important to take note of what to and how to use stance marking as they help in taking position and making judgments about issues.