Cooperative principles in a Nigerian Christian Sermon

Abstract

In the light of the assumptions and expectations that underlie
communicative behaviour in sermonic discourses and their
dependence on contextual inferences rather than linguistic
meanings, this paper utilizes the cooperative principles to
examine a Nigerian Christian sermon by one of the leading
preachers in Nigeria. It is found that the preacher expects the
audience to understand his message by relying on the
background or previous knowledge which they both share.
The paper argues that the fact that utterances are felicitous in
spite of the breach of cooperative principles reveals a major
weakness in Christian sermonic discourses and reinforces the
impression that they are shrouded in mystery.

Key Words: Christianity, Sermon, Religion, Pragmatics,
Co-operative Principles