Pragmatic Acts in Selected Sermons of Bishop David Oyedepo: A Jacob Mey’s Approach

Abstract

This study carried out a review of selected sermons of Bishop David Oyedepo in order to highlight the contexts and pragmatic acts deployed in the sermons, as no scholarly work has been done on Oyedepo’s sermons using Jacob Mey’s pragmatic act theory. The objectives are to ascertain the underlying contexts of the themes in the selected sermons and to examine the pragmatic acts performed. Using exclusively Jacob Mey’s pragmatic act theory as a theoretical framework, the methodology is qualitative in its approach. The design is content analysis. From an average of eleven thousand eight hundred and eight sermons, four sermons spanning varying human endeavours are purposively selected. Data was sourced and collected online, employing the top-down analytical approach to revealing the context and pragmatic acts deployed. Findings reveal the contextual constraints of history and war employing the practs of assuring, informing, and re-enlightening. The summary of the findings reveals that ten excerpts were analysed from the data, two pragmatic contexts were established, and three practs were classified, all interjected with pragmatic tools of REL, INF, REF, SSK, VCE, M and conversational acts which runs through the entire data. Through this study, a framework has been provided for the interpretation of Bishop Oyedepo’s sermons which religious scholars and teachers would find a veritable tool for advancing pedagogical skills in mission schools and churches. The study recommends further studies on the phonological acts performed in sermons.