ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the philosophy of linguistic relativity in the light of some linguistic data gathered in northern Ghana and investigates how the conceptual category is expressed in the Mabia languages of northern Ghana and adjacent areas in West Africa. Tense in the Mabia languages is expressed by means of a system of preverbal particles in conjunction with the lexical verb(s) in the clause. In addition to the calibrated system of expressing time in the verbal system, the Mabia languages also express a still more calibrated system known variously as 'time-depth', 'remoteness' and 'metrical tense'. The Mabia languages of northern Ghana and adjoining areas of Burkina Faso, Togo and the Ivory Coast constitute just one such group of non-Western languages with an elaborate tense system, even more elaborate than that of English and several other Indo-European languages such as French and Norwegian. The metrical tense system of the Mabia also rightly predicted the market-week culture of these people.
