The communicative role of silence in Akan

Kofi Agyekum
Abstract

This paper looks at the meaning of silence within the Akan speech community. It discusses two types of silence (1) performative silence and (2) semiotic silence. The positive attributes of silence as a communicative strategy will be explored. The paper outlines the various communicative situations in Akan society in which silence is employed, highlighting religious, social and linguistic aspects. Attention is drawn to indigenous expressions to describe silence. In passing, I will also compare the Akan data with other African societies and cultures outside Africa. The paper finally discusses silence vs. talk, silence and gender, and the acquisition of silence as a form of socialisation and communicative competence.

Keywords:
Quick links
A browser-friendly version of this article is not yet available. View PDF
Agyekum, Kofi
(1996) Akan verbal taboos in the context of the ethnography of communication. M. Phil. Thesis. University of Trondheim, Norway.
Amory, Deborah P
(1985) The Kanga coth and Swahili society. M.A. Thesis. Yale University.
Bauman, Richard
(1983) Let your words be few: Symbolism of speaking and silence among seventeenth-century Quakers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Barnlund, Dean C
(1989) Communicative Style of Japanese and American: Images and Realities. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.Google Scholar
Basso, Keith
(1972) To give up on words: Silence in Western Apache culture. In Giglioli (ed.), Language in Social Context. United Kingdom: Penguin, pp. 67-86.Google Scholar
Biko, Steve
(1997) For God’s sake, let us remember (ii). In Ghanaian Chronicle (May 2nd - May 8th 1977) Accra General Portfolio Ltd. Page 3.Google Scholar
Bonvillain, N
(1993) Language, Culture and Communication. Englewood: Prentice Hall Inc.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Fox, J.J
(1974) Our ancestors spoke in pairs: Routines views of language, dialect and code. In Bauman and Sherzer (eds.), Explorations in the Ethnography of Speaking. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Guverich, Zaly
(1989) Distance and conversation. Symbolic Interaction 12: 61-67.Google Scholar
Holy Bible
(1984) New International Version. Michigan: Zonderrvan Publishing House.Google Scholar
Irvine, Judith T
(1989) Strategies of status manipulation in Wolof greeting. In Richard Bauman Joel Sherzerand (eds.), Explorations in the Ethnography of Speaking. Second Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 167-191. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jaworski, Adam
(1997) Metacommunicative and metaphorical silences. In Adam Jaworski (ed.), Silence: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Studies in Anthropological Linguistics 10. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 381-401. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Johansen, Richard
(1974) The functions of silence: A plea for communicative research. Western Speech 38, 27.Google Scholar
Kurzon, D
(1995) The right of silence: A sociopragmatic model of interpretation. In Journal of Pragmatics 23: 55-69. DOI logo  BoPGoogle Scholar
Lebra, Takie Sugiyama
(1987) The cultural significance of silence in Japanese communication. Multilingual 6.4: 343-57. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Maltz, Daniel N
(1985) Joyful noise and reverent silence: The significance of noise in Pentecostal worship. In D. Tannen and M. Saville (eds.), Perspectives of Silence. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, pp. 113-137.Google Scholar
Nida, E.A
(1984) Signs, Sense and Translation. Cape Town: Bible Society of South Africa.Google Scholar
Nwoye, Gregory
(1985) Eloquent silence among the Igbo of Nigeria. In D. Tannen and M. Saville (eds.), Perspectives on Silence. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, pp. 185-191.Google Scholar
Opoku, A.A
(1970) Festivals of Ghana. Accra: Ghana Publishing Corporation.Google Scholar
Samovar, Larry A. and Richard E. Porter
(1995) Communication Between Cultures. 2nd edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Sarpong, Peter
(1971) The Sacred Stools of the Akan. Accra-Tema: Ghana Publishing Corporation.Google Scholar
(1974) Ghana in Retrospect: Some Aspects of Ghanaian Culture. Accra-Tema: Ghana Publishing Corporation.Google Scholar
Saville-Troike, M
(1985) The places of silence in an integrated theory of communication. In D. Tannen and M. Saville-Troike (eds.), Perspectives on Silence. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, pp. 3-18.  BoPGoogle Scholar
(1989) The Ethnography of Communication: An Introduction. 2nd edition. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Sifianou, Maria
(1997) Silence and politeness in silence: Interdisciplinary perspectives. In Adam Jaworski (ed.), Studies in Anthropological Linguistics 10. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 63-84.Google Scholar
Szuchewycz, Bohdan
(1997) Silence in ritual communication. In Adam Jaworski (ed.), Silence: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Studies in Anthropological Linguistics 10. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 239-260.Google Scholar
Tannen, Deborah
(1995) Talking for 9 to 5. USA: William Morrow & Co. Inc.Google Scholar
(1985) Silence: Anything but. In D. Tannen and M. Saville (eds.), Perspectives on Silence. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, pp. 93-111.  BoPGoogle Scholar
Verschueren, Jef
(1985) What people say and do with words. Norwood, N.J.: Ablex.Google Scholar
Wardhaugh, Ronald
(1985) How Conversation Works. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.  BoPGoogle Scholar
(1992) An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. 2nd edition. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Yankah, Kwesi
(1989) The Proverb in the Context of Akan Rhetoric: A Theory of Proverb Praxis. New York: Peter Lang Publishers.Google Scholar
(1995) Speaking for the Chief: Okyeame and the Politics of Akan Royal Oratory. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.  BoPGoogle Scholar