A Linguistic Analysis of Friday Sermons of three Mosques in Yola Adamawa State Nigeria

This paper carried out a linguistic analysis of Friday sermons preached in three mosques in Yola, Adamawa state. It examined the lexico-syntactic structures of the language of these sermons. Purposive sampling technique was used to select six sermons from three different mosques covering the period of January to March 2015. The paper adopted the Lexical Functional Grammar (LFG) Theory of Bresnan and Kaplan (1970) to analyse the syntactic structures. This is a based grammar in theoretical linguistics. It posits two separate levels of syntactic structure, a phrase structure grammar representation of word order and constituency, and a representation of grammatical functions such as subject and object, similar to dependency grammar. It mainly focuses on syntax, including its relation with morphology and semantics. The paper found out that the sermons were structured in the conventional pattern of presenting Islamic sermons: the overall diction was simple. The sentences were varied. Simple, compound and complex sentences were all present in the sermons. Functionally, affirmative declarative sentences dominated the sermons. The paper concluded that the lexico-syntactic structure of the sermons aided the semantic import. Thus it recommended that religious preachers should endeavour to adopt simple words and sentences that would enable the adherents imbibe the positive tenets of their religious worships and practises.