ASPECTS OF SEMANTIC CHANGE IN GHANAIAN ENGLISH

ABSTRACT Conceptually situated within the Kachruvian approach to the study of non-native varieties of English, this study delves into the nature of semantic change in Ghanaian English. It examines the mechanisms of meaning creation in Ghanaian English and highlights the kinds of semantic changes that are involved in this meaning creation process. This study brings to the fore creative innovations as well as sociolinguistic realities in the lexis of Ghanaian English. From the sociolinguistic standpoint that is associated with Kachru (1992), numerous lexical items were collected from spoken as well as written sources of Ghanaian English usage and analysed within the framework of sense relations and rhetorical ideas. The study reveals that analogy, association, exaggeration, understatement, propriety or expediency and L1 transference underlie meaning creation in Ghanaian English. It also comes to light that the kinds of semantic changes involved in this meaning creation process are metaphoric, metonymic, hyperbolic, litotic, euphemistic, similized and calqued semantic changes. Summarily, the findings of this research show that the lexis of English has somehow been creatively customized in Ghana and it mirrors the socio-cultural context of its uses.