An Investigation of Lexical and Grammatical Cohesion in Selected Sermon Outlines of Pst. (Dr.) William F. Kumuyi

Abstract

This study investigates the use of lexical and grammatical cohesion in selected sermon outlines of Pastor (Dr.) William F. Kumuyi, with a view to examining how cohesive devices contribute to the construction of meaning, textual coherence and effective communication in sermonic discourse. Data for the study were drawn from twelve randomly selected Sunday worship sermon outlines. The analysis is anchored in M.A.K. Halliday and Hasan’s theory of cohesion within the framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), complemented by insights from stylistic analysis. The findings reveal that both lexical and grammatical cohesive devices are systematically and strategically deployed throughout the texts. Lexical cohesion, realized through repetition, synonymy, antonymy, collocation, and hypernymy/hyponymy, plays a significant role in reinforcing thematic focus and maintaining semantic continuity. Grammatical cohesion, manifested through reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction, and structural parallelism, contributes to logical sequencing, textual unity, clarity of expression, and audience engagement. The study further demonstrates that these cohesive resources enhance the organization, coherence, and interpretability of the sermon outlines, thereby facilitating effective transmission of the preacher’s message. The study concludes that cohesive devices constitute indispensable linguistic resources for meaning-making in religious discourse. It therefore recommends that preachers and other religious communicators consciously exploit cohesive strategies to improve clarity, coherence and audience comprehension. Further studies are also encouraged to explore other linguistic and stylistic dimensions of sermonic discourse across diverse religious traditions.