Felix Ameka
Emeritus Professor Ethnolinguistic Vitality and Diversity in the world
- Name
- Prof.dr. F.K. Ameka
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 2727
- f.k.ameka@hum.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0001-9442-6675
Felix Ameka is Professor by Special Appointment and Senior University Lecturer at the Centre for Linguistics.
More information about Felix Ameka
News
-
Six NWO grants for FGW researchers: this is what the scientists are going to do -
Dutch people should stop ‘politely’ switching to English -
Leiden research projects awarded NWO Open Competition grants -
World Congress of African Linguists (WOCAL): A conference like no other -
Felix Ameka: ‘Multilingualism is the answer to many problems’
PhD students
Fields of interest
- Descriptive and documentary linguistics
- Semantics and Pragmatics
- Linguistic typology
- Anthropological linguistics
- Ethnography of communication
- Language contact and areal linguistics
- West African languages
Research
My primary research interests are the quest for the meaning of linguistic signs and exploring their use in social interaction. I am also interested in how and why languages vary and chagne over time and space, also in the reflexice relation between language, culture and cognition. I am concerned with questions of how cultural factors and cognitive processes as well as contact shape meanings and structures of languages. I work with primary data collected using ethnographic and experimental methods. My empirical specialisation is West African languages, mainly Kwa languages and other languages of wider communication, namely, Hausa and Fulfulde. My focus is on Gbe, i.e. Ewe, Gen Aja and Fon; Ghana-Togo-Mountain languages, especially Likpe; Guang and Akanic languages.
Teaching activities
Courses I teach include: Communication in Africa
Language Use and Diversity
Words and Meaning
Anthropological Linguistics
Language, Culture and Cognition
Curriculum vitae
| 1991 | Ph.D (Linguistics), Australian National University, Canberra |
| 1986 | MA (Linguistics), Australian National University, Canberra |
| 1980 | BA (Linguistics Major), Honours 1, University of Ghana, Legon |
Emeritus Professor Ethnolinguistic Vitality and Diversity in the world
- Faculty of Humanities
- Leiden Univ Centre for Linguistics
- LUCL T&C van Afrika
Researcher
- Faculty of Humanities
- Leiden Univ Centre for Linguistics
- LUCL T&C van Afrika
- Ameka F.K. (30 September 2022). Turning the tide from language endangerment to ethnolinguistic vitality. Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL), Faculty of Humanities , Leiden University. Leiden. [inaugural address].
- Ameka F.K., Mclughlin F., Cissé I., Atintono S., Seyfeddinipur M. & Ngue Um E. (20 July 2017), Panel discussion on Documentary linguistics. Interviewed by Awuku C. (Radio Windy Bay (Ghana)). [interview].