Dr. Obadele Kambon 2013 UG-Legon Vice Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Thesis - Humanities

Comments from the external examiner:
The main findings of the research point to the fact that (a) An overwhelming majority (98%) of Full Lexicalized-Integrated SVCs have nominal counterparts; 2% do not; (b) Only 3% of Partial Lexicalized-Integrated SVCs have nominal counterparts; 97% do not; (c) Clause Chaining Serial Constructions appear to nominalize haphazardly and/or unsystematically as frozen sentences or figures of speech (idioms, proverbs, etc.; (d) The primary function of such forms, he identified, were what Charles Morris (1971) calls denotata and designata; Full Lexicalized-Integrated SVCs behave as lexicalized idioms and because of this, four criteria of idiomaticity namely -- collocability, familiarity, flexibility and compositionality -- are applied to them; and (g) There is systematicity in the pattern of nominalization behavior of serial verb nominals across the main Akan dialects.
This work recapitulates and substantially extends work already done on Akan SVCs by Osam (1994), Agyeman (2002) and others. A major contribution of the dissertation is the detailed discussion and exemplification of issues relating to nominalization of SVCs. This is the first attempt at such a detailed discussion and exemplification and the candidate deserves commendation. His categorizations are original as is his attention to scholarly detail and to showing the relationship between and among the three major Akan dialects. One could conveniently argue that this is one of the strongest points of the dissertation.
Very little has been done on Akan nominalization in general and little to nothing on SVC nominalization in particular, so this study is a trailblazer or a path-finder! Syntacticians and semanticists will cite this work and continue with the discussion and issues it raises for the next couple of decades. I am impressed with the details and both the candidate and his advisors must be commended for the high degree of systematicity employed in the synthesis and analyses done in the study.
The candidate drew his conclusions based on the actual data collected and on the results (synthesis and analysis of the data) thereby making the analytical claims have functional validity and protecting them from standing insulated from public scrutiny. This is, again, commendable.
The recommendations for future research, especially, his call for comparing SVNs with other types of nominalizations, is in the right direction more especially due to the scantiness and dearth of knowledge about nominalizations in general about Akan and other West African languages in particular.
The dissertation is very well written and I am willing to pass it without any reservation whatsoever. The content is excellent as is its rendition.

Comments from the internal examiner:

The study does a good job of relating the data and findings to broader theoretical debates in the Functional/cognitive linguistic literature. For example, study results suggest that, at least in the Akan data examined, higher degrees of semantic integration in complex forms correlate with lower degrees of iconicity. Further, the subtype categories of serial verb constructions identified by Osam (1994) are "fuzzy" categories in terms of ability to undergo nominalization. This supports the prototype approach to categorization, rather than a classical "sharp-boundary" approach to categorization.
Though the author does not particularly draw it out rhetorically, the study sits squarely within the linguistic sub-field of Lexicography: the study is a detailed investigation of speakers' lexical knowledge of nouns formed (either historically or productively possibly in the moment of speaking) from serial verb constructions. In my view, the lexicographic work, bringing out native-speaker knowledge about the complex forms including in some cases how this may have changed across time and may vary by dialect, may be one of the most enduring contributions of the study. Many of the item-by-item findings could, for example, largely be incorporated into an etymological dictionary of Akan.
The study contributes new information to understanding the cross-linguistic and Akan-internal typology of nominalizations of serial verb constructions. The minute detail on dialect variation is valuable for sociolinguistic variationist studies.

A discussion on Angles of attack

The giant hornet is the worst nightmare of many commercial beekeepers in Japan - and unfortunately, this hive doesn't stand a chance.
Subscribe: http://bit.ly/BBCEarthSub

#HornetsMassacreBees #BuddhaBees #BBCEarth

Watch more:
Planet Earth http://bit.ly/PlanetEarthPlaylist
Blue Planet http://bit.ly/BluePlanetPlaylist
Planet Earth II http://bit.ly/PlanetEarthIIPlaylist
Planet Dinosaur http://bit.ly/PlanetDinoPlaylist

Natural World: Buddha Bees and The Giant Hornet Queen
It's springtime on Honshu Island, and a queen stirs from hibernation. She alone has the ability to create an empire of winged killers, one that will last all summer long. She is a Japanese giant hornet: the largest wasp on the planet. Armed with razor-sharp jaws, thick armour plating, and a lethal half-inch stinger, these hornets have but one mission: to spread their majesty's reign to the whole countryside. Is there nothing that can stop this murderous horde? Or will the giant monsters destroy all who stand in their way, man and insect alike?

Welcome to BBC EARTH! The world is an amazing place full of stories, beauty and natural wonder. Here you'll find 50 years worth of entertaining and thought-provoking natural history content. Dramatic, rare, and exclusive, nature doesn't get more exciting than this.

This is a commercial page from BBC Studios. Service information and feedback: http://bbcworldwide.com/vod-fe....edback--contact-deta

This is to explain to the hundreds of people who have commented on my videos why I never reply to any of them.

Two rival hornet species go sting-to-sting in the battle for territory. Who will win?
Subscribe: http://bit.ly/BBCEarthSub

#BuddhaBeesAndTheGiantHornetQueen #BBCEarth

Watch more:
Planet Earth http://bit.ly/PlanetEarthPlaylist
Blue Planet http://bit.ly/BluePlanetPlaylist
Planet Earth II http://bit.ly/PlanetEarthIIPlaylist
Planet Dinosaur http://bit.ly/PlanetDinoPlaylist

Natural World: Buddha Bees and The Giant Hornet Queen
It's springtime on Honshu Island, and a queen stirs from hibernation. She alone has the ability to create an empire of winged killers, one that will last all summer long. She is a Japanese giant hornet: the largest wasp on the planet. Armed with razor-sharp jaws, thick armour plating, and a lethal half-inch stinger, these hornets have but one mission: to spread their majesty's reign to the whole countryside. Is there nothing that can stop this murderous horde? Or will the giant monsters destroy all who stand in their way, man and insect alike?

Welcome to BBC EARTH! The world is an amazing place full of stories, beauty and natural wonder. Here you'll find 50 years worth of entertaining and thought-provoking natural history content. Dramatic, rare, and exclusive, nature doesn't get more exciting than this.

This is a commercial page from BBC Studios. Service information and feedback: http://bbcworldwide.com/vod-fe....edback--contact-deta

Steve Cokely Exposes the Boule Society

Interview with Boule insider Steve Cokely. Steve reveals what he knows about this African American secret society and associated Greek letter college fraternities influencing pro football baseball basketball golf and other sports, music and Hollywood television and film industry.

Further reading:

[1] History of Black Fraternities.
[2] Fraternity History.
[3] The First Fraternities.
[4] Wikipedia: History of college fraternities.
[5] Wikipedia: Acacia Frat.
[6] Wikipedia: Collegiate Secret Societies.
[7] America's Secret Establishment, Antony Sutton.
[8] The Legend of Skull and Bones.
[9] Greek Fraternities and Freemasonry.
[10] Masonry and the College Frat.
[11] College Fraternities Linked to Freemasonry.
[12] Freemasonry: Phi Beta Kappa, the Orange, and Odd Fellows societies.
[13] Masons, College Fraternities and the University of Washington.


There are many famous persons but these two stories stand out for different reasons:

http://instituteofblackstudyandresearh.ning.com
Steve Cokely lecture in 93 in L.A. titled after William Copper book Behold a pale horse.

We asked you on the Community Page on the Bla Xit You Tube channel if you would like to know more about some traditional Gambian Drinks. So we have made a two part series just for you.

We post in the Community section so if you would like to know more and keep in touch it is a great place to meet. So I hope you can buy some of the ingredients when you are out shopping and try them for yourself.

Thank you to Anna and Fatou for helping us and Khafre for ****isting and Adrian for drinking and to Seth for filming and editing.

I hope you enjoy this episode it is dedicated to all our supporters and donors we really appreciate you very much. We love you all Bla Xit family and I would love for you to be making your own drinks in your home in Africa soon. Thanks for watching, thanks for subscribing and thanks for Smashing that like button.

If you would like to contact us you can do so via Email blaxithome@gmail.com
We have been on the Road with Temdri World's Mansa please subscribe to his channel on You Tube and watch his fun journey to Africa by road. We thanks Wode Maya for helping us and mentoring us still.

If you would like to support Bla Xit you can by sending a donation to us via Paypal using our Bopcollective@yahoo.com email address please. https://www.paypal.com/gm/home
Or via Patreon using Bla Xit. https://www.patreon.com/Blaxit

As we discover and explore new places all over the Gambia during Lock Down we find available plots of land that you can acquire to have Your Place in the Sun! We teamed up with Mansa from Temdri World to ensure you could see larger shots from an ariel view using his drone.We will be looking at plots near the sea near rivers in remote places and commercial and Tourist areas. So you can start making your home here in Africa in the Gambia.

Thank you to MPRA BEATS for the great beats. Thank you to our guests Sommer Sankofa and Mansa thank you Seth for filming and editing. Thanks Khafre & Adrian for your support .Thank you to team Bla Xit for your support. Thank you Bla Xit family for your supporting us and giving us the inspiration to continue. I have seen your messages via WhatsApp and I have responded to some, it takes me to time to go through so many so please bear with me I will get to you. You can call me on my direct dial also. I want to say thank you to all of our donors and all of our subscribers for helping us to grow.
We are working to start the migration for communication to black platforms for for us to communicate on.We will let you know when the process is starting to happen.

We want to thank Wode Maya our inspiration for starting us on our way and continuing to support us. Big up all of the Vloggers and Bloggers changing the narrative of Africa.

If you would like to support us you can by making a donation to via Paypal using Bopcollective@Yahoo.Com email address. https://www.paypal.com/gm/home
Or via Patreon using Bla Xit. https://www.patreon.com/Blaxit
We are very grateful for your generosity and kindness. It helps us to continue to create content.
Big Love Bla Xit Family.