Publications

Journal Articles

• 2025. On the strong-weak status of the Akan definiteness marker. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory.

• 2023. On unexpected exceptions to prosodic vacuity and verbal resumption in Akan. Snippets. (with Samuel Korsah and Comfort Ahenkorah)

• 2014. Code-switching as a means and a message in hiplife music in Ghana. Contemporary Journal of African Studies 2(2): 1–32. (with M. Quarcoo and A. Evershed)

Book Chapters

• 2025. Definitely a Question: Definite Markers in Akan Ex-situ Questions. In Cross-disciplinary Approaches to Information Structure in Niger-Congo Languages, edited by Akinlabi, Korsah, Rose, and Sulemana. Language Science Press.

• To appear. Habitual, Abilities, and Actuality Entailments in Akan. In Handbook of Temporality in Language, edited by Cable, Ogihara, and Zagona. 

Conference Proceedings

• 2022. Definite Indefinite Stacking in Akan. In Proceedings of TripleA 8.

• 2022. Tense and Aspect in Akan Serial Verb Constructions. In Selected Papers from ACAL 49.

• 2019. A Closer Look at bi: An Epistemic Indefinite Analysis. In Selected Papers from ACAL 48.

Under Review

• Habitualities and Abilities in Akan (ACAL 56 Proceedings) (with Lydia Newkirk)

• Clausal Determiners in Relative Clauses Mark Uniqueness: Experimental Evidence from Akan   (Duah, R., Renans, A., Bombi, C.)

(Submitted to Glossa Special Issue on Clausal Determiners)

Current Projects

• Beyond Quasi-Names: Bare Definites in Akan

• Definiteness in Akan: A Descriptive and Analytical Consolidation (in preparation) 

Invited Talks

• 2026. In-between Stages: The Grammaticalization of the Akan Definite Determiner. Invited Plenary Address, Annual Conference on African Linguistics (ACAL 57), University at Buffalo.

• 2026. Title TBA. Princeton Linguistics Colloquium, Princeton University. (forthcoming)

• 2024. Are Clausal Determiners Propositional Determiners? Harvard Linguistics Colloquium, Harvard University.

• 2022. Definite Propositions and Clausal Determiners. LingLangLunch Brownbag Series, Brown University.

• 2022. Keeping Track of Entities: The Use of (In)definiteness Articles in Language. Boston College Global Scholars Lecture.

• 2021. Definite Indefinite Stacking in Akan. Invited Plenary Address, TripleA 8, National University of Singapore.

• 2021. Papa no is Familiar: Understanding Definiteness in Akan. Department of Linguistics Colloquium, University of Ghana.

• 2020. Definite Propositions and Clausal Determiners. Department of Linguistics Colloquium, Boston University.

• 2017. Actuality Entailment in Akan. Semantics Group, New York University. 

Conference Presentations

• 2025. Habitualities and Abilities in Akan. Annual Conference on African Linguistics (ACAL 56). (with Lydia Newkirk)

• 2024. Definite wh-questions in Akan. Annual Conference on African Linguistics (ACAL 55), McGill University.

• 2019. Bare Nouns in Akan Revisited. TripleA 6, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

• 2019. Determiners Outside the Nominal Domain. Annual Conference on African Linguistics (ACAL 50), University of British Columbia.

• 2018. Actuality Entailment in Akan and Lubukusu. Annual Conference on African Linguistics (ACAL 49). (with Ken Safir)

• 2018. Tense and Aspect in Akan. Annual Conference on African Linguistics (ACAL 49).

• 2017. Actuality Entailment in Akan. TripleA 4, University of Gothenburg.

• 2017. Another Look at bi: An Epistemic Indefinite Analysis. Annual Conference on African Linguistics (ACAL 48).

• 2017. The Typology of NC Sequences in Central Tano. Annual Conference on African Linguistics (ACAL 48). (with Akinbiyi Akinlabi)

• 2015. Modal Concord in Akan. World Congress of African Linguistics.

• 2013. A Comparative Study of Reflexivization in Akan and Ewe. Linguistics Association of Ghana Conference. 

Workshops & Posters

Workshops

• 2023. Are There Complex Predicates in Akan? Evidence from Adverbial Modification. ALS–LSA Workshop on Complex/Clustered Predicates and Argument Structure in African Languages, University of Massachusetts Amherst. (with Comfort Ahenkorah)

• 2022. Definiteness and Information Structure. African Linguistics School 6, Porto-Novo, Benin.

• 2022. On the Strong-Weak Status of the Akan Definite Determiner. Definiteness across Domains Workshop, Humboldt University. 

Posters

• 2024. Towards a Syntactic Analysis of Akan Familiarity Markers. Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting. (with Travis Major)

• 2023. Definiteness Markers in Akan Ex-situ Questions. Workshop on (In)definiteness across Languages, Yale University.

• 2016. Actuality Entailment in Akan. Mid-Atlantic Colloquium of Studies in Meaning (MACSIM 6), Hunter College, CUNY.