Deictic Analysis of Cohesive Markers in Religious Discourse

Abstract

This study investigates the deployment of deixis as cohesive markers in religious text drawing insight from theories of deixis and cohesion. The data for the study were generated from a religious sermon preached by Dr Daniel Kolawole Olukoya of Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries (MFM) during Manna Water programme held on Wednesday 22nd of September, 2021. With the use of quantitative and qualitative research methods, the study identifies the type of deixis used in the sermon, and their deployment as cohesive markers in the text. The findings reveal five different types of deixis that appeared as cohesive markers which include person deixis, spatial deixis, temporal deixis, discourse deixis and demonstrative deixis. The person deixis was used to designate the participants in the discourse, spatial deixis helps to focus the attention of listeners to the different locations mentioned in the sermon, temporal deixis was employed to make reference to different time periods during the sermon, discourse deixis appeared to linking linguistic elements and ideas in the text; while the demonstratives identify notional elements mentioned in the sermon. As cohesive devices, the person deixis, spatial deixis, temporal deixis and demonstratives function as references and substitution, while discourse deixis functions both as references, substitute and conjunctions to link linguistic elements and ideas in the text. The study concludes that the deictic elements used in the religious sermon function as an integral part of text creation to enhance cohesion in the text.