Identity Construction: An Onomastic Exploration of Church Names in Ghana

Abstract

A growing body of research has sought to examine the interface between language and identity construction from different theoretical perspectives. Located in the institution of religion, this study drew on Hall's (1997) representation model to explore how Ghanaian church names are constructed through language and the identities such names instantiate. One hundred church names were randomly selected as data for the study from charismatic and Pentecostalchurch billboards within the Agona West Municipality of the Central Region of Ghana and a qualitative content analysis approach adopted for the analysis. The analysis of data revealed that some charismatic and Pentecostal churches in Ghana use varied religio-linguistic signifiers such as "church”, "ministry”, "camp”, "movement”, "assembly”, and "chapel” to enact and instantiate their identities. The study also showed that the religio-linguistic signifiers were employed to forge indigenous, transnational, international, incongruous and Christian religious identities. Further, different religio-linguistic resources are used to enact and instantiate diverse but distinct religious identities in different contexts. The study contributes to the scholarship on Sociolinguistics, in general, and the growing research on the identity construction of church names from an onomastic perspective, in particular. The study also has theoretical implication for the application of Hall's (1997) representation model to the study of identity construction in church names and further research on church names.