A Sociolinguistic Study of Address Practices among the Middle Class Spouses of Ashanti and Ewe in Ghana

Abstract

Within familial domain, address practices have been identified to reflect the social roles in marriage and spouses' attitude towards each other. This study focused on investigating address practices by middle class spouses in Ghana from a cross-cultural perspective. This work studied the address practices of 64 spouses of Ashanti and Ewe ethnic background in four different social contexts: together alone, in the presence of in-laws, in the presence of children and before spouse's friends. The data which were collected through questionnaire and interview revealed that both men and women middle class spouses preferred using pet names when together alone to show affection and intimacy; more respect names and pet names before their children, spouse's parents and friends. It was revealed that the Ewes used more respect names than the Ashantis. Due to their social class, age did not have any effect on their choice of address terms.