Discourse features and patterns in sermonic texts: an analysis of a nigerian pentecostal christian sermon

This paper examines the discourse features and patterns in a Nigerian Christian Pentecostal sermon. The selected sermon is analyzed structurally into clauses. Discourse categories as well as discourse strategies employed by the speaker in communicating biblical truths are identified. The study establishes that sermonic discourse is a highly structured speech event consisting of linguistic categories such as transactions, members and acts. It also reveals that formal structures are influenced by socio-functional goals of the speaker, one of which is to exhort and persuade hearers to right thinking and right living.

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Sermonic Text ,

Pentecostal Christian Sermon ,

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