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About Me

My research centers on the interface between morphosyntax and semantics,
an interest that began during my undergraduate studies at the University of
Cape Coast. I first became interested in the morphology of number marking in
Akan, particularly in why the language uses several different strategies to
express number and how these forms are distributed. This work eventually
developed into a broader question that has shaped much of my research: how are
grammatical features represented in syntactic structure, and how do those
representations determine their morphological realization and semantic
interpretation?

I pursued this question in my Ph.D. dissertation at Yale University, One Feature, Many Layers: From Morphosyntax to the Semantics of Number in Akan. My dissertation examines number across both the nominal and verbal domains and argues that number need not be represented in a single structural position. Instead, it may be distributed across multiple layers of grammatical structure, with different layers contributing distinct aspects of meaning and morphological realization. Although much of my work focuses on Akan, I am increasingly interested in how these patterns compare with other Kwa languages and what this variation can tell us about the representation of grammatical features more generally.

Beyond number, I am interested in
syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, particularly questions involving discourse
particles and the left periphery. My work on Akan discourse particles examines
how a single form may occur in different syntactic positions and how these
structural differences relate to its interpretation.

In syntax, I am also interested in resumption, agreement, and the broader
relationship between syntactic structure and morphological form.

Another strand of my research concerns sentence processing and comprehension, particularly how aspectual verbs are processed in Akan and how grammatical complexity affects real-time comprehension. This work has led me to broader questions about how speakers use grammatical and contextual information during sentence processing. I am particularly interested in bringing experimental methods into closer conversation with my theoretical work.

Research

My dissertation, One Feature, Many Layers: From Morphosyntax to the Semantics of Number in Akan, examines how number is represented, realized, and interpreted across the nominal and verbal domains of Akan.

I argue that number is not confined to a single syntactic position. Instead, it is distributed across multiple layers of grammatical structure, with each layer making a distinct contribution to morphological realization and semantic interpretation.

In the nominal domain, this layered structure accounts for the different number-marking strategies found in Akan, including cases in which multiple number morphemes occur within a single nominal. The analysis shows that these markers are not simply interchangeable expressions of singular or plural meaning; their distribution and interpretation depend on where they occur in the nominal structure.

In the verbal domain, I show that event plurality is similarly distributed across different structural layers. Akan verbal reduplication distinguishes event-internal plurality, involving plurality within a single complex event, from event-external plurality, involving multiple events across time, participants, or space.

The dissertation brings these patterns together under a broader account of grammatical features in which a single feature may be distributed across multiple structural positions rather than represented by a single functional head. More broadly, my research asks how these patterns vary across languages and what that variation can tell us about the relationship between grammatical structure, morphological form, and meaning

Presentations

Conference Talks

2026 “From Morphosyntax to the Semantics of Akan Number Morphology.” 56th Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society (NELS 56), The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY), October 16–18, 2026. Upcoming.

2025 “Exclusive Focus in Akan and Type Flexibility.” TripleA 12 Workshop, University of Tokyo, September
10–12, 2025. [with Ka-Fai Yip]

2025 “The Semantics of Ewe Number Marking.” 31st Annual University of Edinburgh Linguistics and English Language Postgraduate Conference, Edinburgh, UK, June 4–6, 2025.

2025 “The Semantics of Ewe Number Marking.” 56th Annual Conference on African Linguistics (ACAL), University of Minnesota, May 15–17, 2025.

2024 “Navigating Number Marking in Akan Nominals and Predicates.” Gaps and Imprecision in Natural Language Semantics Workshop, ZAS Berlin, October 8–9, 2024.

2024 “The Split Number Analysis for Akan Plural Morphology.” 55th Annual Conference on African Linguistics (ACAL), Montreal, Canada, May 2–4, 2024.

2024 “Two Types of Subject Resumption in Akan.” 55th Annual Conference on African Linguistics (ACAL), Montreal, Canada, May 2–4, 2024. [with Ka-Fai Yip]

2023 “The Syntax-Semantics Analysis of Akan Plural Morphology.” 45th Annual Conference of the German Linguistic Society (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft, DGfS), Cologne, Germany, March 7–10, 2023.

2022 “We Want to Know, Must You Answer This Question?” Southern New England Workshop in Semantics (SNEWS), Yale University, November 12, 2022. [with Yuyang Liu]

2022 “On the Particle(s) of anaa in Akan.” African Linguistics School Workshop, Porto-Novo, Benin, July 28–30, 2022.

2021 “Non-agreeing Resumptive Pronouns and Partial Copy Deletion.” SYNC 2021, CUNY Graduate Center, December 4, 2021. [with Ka-Fai Yip]

2021 “A Reply to Kandybowicz or a New yE in Akan.” Structural Asymmetries in African Languages (SAIAL), April 15–16, 2021. [with Sampson Korsah]

Invited Talks

2026 “One Feature, Many Layers: From Morphosyntax to Semantics of Number in Akan.” Syntax Brown Bag, New York University, May 1, 2026.

2022 “Non-agreeing Resumptive Pronouns and Partial Copy Deletion.” University of Connecticut LingLunch, April 26, 2022. [with Ka-Fai Yip]

2020 “Say tweaa (Not apuutOO): A Linguist’s Contribution to the COVID-19 Fight.” Faculty of Arts Public Lecture, University of Cape Coast, August 25, 2020. [with Sampson Korsah]

2020 “A Reply to Kandybowicz or a New yE in Akan.” Ghanaian Languages and Linguistics Departmental Seminar, University of Cape Coast, March 2, 2020. [with Sampson Korsah]

Poster Presentations

2026 “Three Morphological Paths to Kind Reference.” GLOW 48, Siena, Italy, April 21–23, 2026.

2025 “Exclusive Focus in Akan and Type Flexibility.” NELS 55, New York University, October 17–19, 2025. [with Ka-Fai Yip]

2024 “Multiple Plural(s) in Akan.” Workshop on Morphology at Princeton, Princeton University, March 23, 2024.

2023 “Pluralization Strategies in Akan.” SALT Satellite, Yale University, May 4, 2023.

2023 “Pluractional Reduplication in Akan.” 97th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Denver, Colorado, January 5–8, 2023.

2022 “Non-agreeing Resumptive Pronouns and Partial Copy Deletion.” 96th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic
Society of America, Washington, DC. [with Ka-Fai Yip]

2022 “The Four anaa Particle(s).” Language Diversity, Linguistic Theory and Cultural Identity in South Asia, Yale University.

Publications

Journal Articles
• Ahenkorah, Comfort. “Multiple Pluralization Strategies in Akan: A Split Number Approach.” Linguistic Inquiry. Accepted.

• Korsah, Sampson, Augustina Owusu, and Comfort Ahenkorah. 2023. “On Unexpected Exceptions to Prosodic Vacuity and Verbal Resumption in Akan.” Snippets.

• Thompson, Rachel, Comfort Ahenkorah, and Wendy Amoako Kwakye. 2022. “Natural Semantic
Metalanguage of Akan.” Journal of West African Languages 49(1): 46–66.

Book Chapters and Conference Proceedings
• Ahenkorah, Comfort. 2025. “The Descriptive and Syntactic Properties of the ànáá Particle(s).” In Akinbiyi Akinlabi, Sampson Korsah, Sharon Rose, and Abdul-Razak Sulemana (eds.), Cross-disciplinary Approaches to Information Structure in Niger-Congo Languages, 155–179. Berlin: Language Science Press.

• Ahenkorah, Comfort. “Three Morphological Paths to Kind Reference.” Proceedings of GLOW 48. Forthcoming.

• Ahenkorah, Comfort and Ka-Fai Yip. “Exclusive Focus in Akan and Type Flexibility.” Proceedings of NELS 55. To appear.

• Yip, Ka-Fai and Comfort Ahenkorah. 2022. “Non-agreeing Resumptive Pronouns and Partial Copy
Deletion.” University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 29(1): 206–215.

Manuscripts
• Ahenkorah, Comfort. “From Morphosyntax of Number to a Compositional Semantics: The Case of Akan.” Submitted to Linguistics and Philosophy.

• Ahenkorah, Comfort. “The Split Pluractionality Analysis: The Case of Verbal Reduplication in Akan.” Submitted to Natural Language & Linguistic Theory.

• Ahenkorah, Comfort and Ka-Fai Yip. “Subject Resumption in Akan and vP Phasehood.” Manuscript in preparation.

• Ahenkorah, Comfort. “The Structure and Dynamic Implementation of Aspectual Verbs in Akan.” Manuscript in preparation.

Dissertation
• Ahenkorah, Comfort. 2026. One Feature, Many Layers: From Morphosyntax to the Semantics of
Number in Akan. Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University.

56th Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society (NELS 56)

​​​Course

​​​Semantics ​​​​​​ [Summer 2027]

Presentation

The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY), October 16–18, 2026.

Topic:

From Morphosyntax to the Semantics of Akan Number Morphology

Address

Comfort Ahenkorah Yale University Department of Linguistics PO Box 208366 New Haven CT, 06520

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