Abstract

Close attention to juridical discourses from the queen mothers of Ashanti's and Akyem-Asuom courts suggests that Akan customary juridical discourse is influenced by the sociopolitical and cultural contexts in which it takes place, as well as language and cultural ideologies, participants' goals, and intended outcomes. In managing communicatively difficult speech, including disagreements, complaint narratives, requests, and denials, female disputants employ communicative strategies that differ from those of men. Although Akan language ideology assumes that women are not as communicatively competent as men in juridical genres, our study shows that women can sometimes gain advantage over men in the customary courts because female and male disputants use language differently and for different purposes.

pdf

Share