Abstract
This study is concerned with the pragmatic aspects in American Christian sermons by White-American and African-American preachers. The study aims at detecting the noticeable differences between preachers in terms of the pragmatic strategies and tracing the social variable of ethnicity. The data under scrutiny are selected from official websites in forms of videos transcribed by the researchers and then analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The two types of analysis help the study to arrive at a variety of conclusions, the most central of which is there are considerable differences between the White-American and African-American preachers regarding their use of the pragmatic strategies. It also concludes that the social variable of ethnicity affects the African-American preachers more than their counterpart.
Highlights
The language of American Christian sermons is full of a number of pragmatic strategies which help in shaping the general structure of these sermons
The present study focuses on examining American Christian sermons about the USA elections 2016 as they have a pivotal role in the USA elections
The study hypothesizes that: 1) Noticeable differences can be discovered between American sermons preached by White-American preachers and those preached by African-American preachers in terms of the use of the pragmatic strategies
Summary
It is represented by the following extract with the use of SAs and CMs:. (1) It is so sweet to trust in Jesus these days and times that we are living in where we really do not know who to trust in, but it is so sweet to trust in Jesus. (2) God bless you all. (3) Thank you all very much. (4) Well, good morning all the professors, all of our pastors, all the students, everyone who is here on today, and all the guests. (5) I am delighted and excited because I have been invited to be here with you. (6) It is always a joy and a privilege. (7) We thank you for this wonderful and exciting privilege to be in the Lord’s house on this day. Pastor Luter, in extract (10) above, makes use of different SAs; namely, boasting, blessing, thanking, and greeting He felicitously utilises Rep SA of boasting twice in utterance (1) when he expresses his pride of being a Christian who trusts in Jesus Christ. Pastor Luter utilises a felicitous SA of stating in utterance (1) as he states clearly and adequately that he wants to preach from the subject of what to do when American Christian people do not know what to do in relation to the USA elections Likewise, he makes use of felicitous SA of asserting in utterances (2), (3), (4), and (5) since he wants to assert the fact that American people all over America will go to the polls to make their choices and their decisions and to vote legally to the president of the United States of America. The strategy of including both S and H in the activity is used when Pastor Luter uses the inclusive pronouns “us” and “we” respectively in utterance (6), “the question I want to ask to all of us is “How do we make those choices?...when we have to vote for ...” in order to convey a mutual cooperation with the congregation
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
