Felix Ameka

{{Short description|Ghanaian linguist}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}

{{Infobox academic

| name = Felix K. Ameka

| image = FelixAmeka2022.jpg

| caption = Ameka (2022)

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| birth_date = 1957

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| occupation = Linguist

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| alma_mater = Australian National University

| influences =

| workplaces = Leiden University

| main_interests = linguistic typology, anthropological linguistics, pragmatics

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Felix Ameka (born 1957) is a linguist working on the intersection of grammar, meaning and culture. His empirical specialisation is on West-African languages.{{Cite web |title=Felix Ameka — Google Scholar Citations |url=https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jpN2GQUAAAAJ&hl=en |access-date=2020-06-09 |website=Google Scholar}} He is currently professor of Ethnolinguistic Diversity and Vitality at Leiden University{{cite web|url=https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2021/02/felix-ameka-multilingualism-is-the-answer-to-many-problems |title=Felix Ameka: 'Multilingualism is the answer to many problems'|website=Leiden University|date=9 February 2021 |accessdate=3 March 2021}} and teaches in the departments of Linguistics, African Languages and cultures, and African Studies.{{Cite web|url=https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/staffmembers/felix-ameka|title=Felix Ameka|website=Leiden University|accessdate=15 October 2022}} In recognition of his pioneering work on cross-cultural semantics and his long-standing research ties with Australian universities, he was elected as a Corresponding Fellow to the Australian Academy of Humanities in 2019.{{Cite web |title=Fellows: Felix Ameka |url=https://www.humanities.org.au/fellows/fellows/?find_contact_id=25918 |website=Humanities Australia}}

After undergraduate training at the University of Ghana, Legon, Ameka received his PhD in 1991 from Australian National University for a dissertation on the semantic, functional, and discourse-pragmatic aspects of the grammar of Ewe. Ameka has made seminal contributions to the cross-linguistic study of interjections, editing a highly influential special issue on 'the universal yet neglected part of speech'.{{Cite journal| issn = 0378-2166| volume = 18| issue = 2–3| pages = 101–118| last = Ameka| first = Felix K.| title = Interjections: The Universal Yet Neglected Part of Speech| journal = Journal of Pragmatics| date = 1992| doi = 10.1016/0378-2166(92)90048-G| hdl = 11858/00-001M-0000-0011-5356-1| hdl-access = free}} Ameka has pioneered research on the interaction of grammar, culture, and social structure, using the framework of Natural Semantic Metalanguage to elucidate cultural scripts and interactional resources.{{Cite book |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-203-86965-9 |pages=203–215 |editor=Martin J. Ball |last1=Connell |first1=Bruce |last2=Zeitlyn |first2=David |title=Sociolinguistics Around the World |chapter=Sociolinguistic studies of West and Central Africa |location=Hoboken |access-date=2012-03-30 |date=2009 |chapter-url=http://public.eblib.com/EBLPublic/PublicView.do?ptiID=472493 |chapter-url-access=subscription}} A long-term research associate at the Max Planck Institute of Psycholinguistics, Ameka has led a large-scale comparative project on the semantics of locative predicates{{Cite journal| volume = 45| issue = 5part6| pages = 847–871| last1 = Ameka| first1 = Felix K.| last2 = Levinson| first2 = Stephen C.| title = Introduction: The typology and semantics of locative predicates: posturals, positionals, and other beasts| journal = Linguistics| date = 2007| doi = 10.1515/LING.2007.025| hdl = 11858/00-001M-0000-0013-1BF8-C| hdl-access = free}} and contributed to cross-linguistic work on the expression of motion events. With Alan Dench and Nick Evans, he co-edited an influential collection on the art of grammar writing.{{Cite book |publisher=Mouton de Gruyter |editor=Felix K. Ameka |editor2=Alan Dench |editor3=Nicholas Evans |title=Catching Language: the standing challenge of grammar writing |location=Berlin |date=2006}}

Ameka is editor of the Journal of African Languages and Linguistics together with Azeb Amha. Since 2015, Ameka is President of the World Congress of African Linguistics.{{Cite web |title=World Congress of African Linguistics |url=http://wocal.net/ |accessdate=15 October 2022 |website=wocal.}}

In 2021, he was elected member of the Academia Europaea.{{cite web|title=Felix Ameka|url=https://www.ae-info.org/ae/Member/Ameka_Felix|work=Member|publisher=Academia Europaea|access-date=2024-07-15}}