Address Terms among University Students in Ghana: A Case Study

Abstract

An important feature of the interface between language and society is the use of address terms. Following Brown and Gilman (1960), research studies of address terms have been extended to several cultural settings. This study contributes to this fertile area of sociolinguistic studies by describing the address terms used among undergraduates in an English-medium university in Ghana. Two sets of data collected from participant and nonparticipant observation and interviews constitute the primary source of data, supplemented by intuition. Analysis and discussion of this study point to three key findings. First, Ghanaian students use four major groups of address terms. The second finding relates to the use of the reported modes of address, namely, personal names, titles, descriptive terms and catch phrases to reflect and construct the individual and social identity of students. The final point is the use of modes of address to reflect a warm and vivacious culture. These findings have implication for theory and intercultural communication.