The pragmatics of persuasiveness in American Christian sermons

Abstract EN

The present study is concerned with examining persuasiveness from a pragmatic standpoint in some American Christian sermons about the USA elections 2016 basing on Aristotle's persuasive appeals and Grice's maxims.

It includes qualitative as well as quantitative analyses to answer the questions of this study, fulfill its aims, and verify its key hypotheses.

The findings have provided a new dimension added to the previous literature about the pragmatics of persuasiveness.

Most previous studies on American Christian sermons concentrate on its theological aspects regardless of its pragmatic importance.

Thus, the present study attempts to bridge this gap by offering a pragmatic analysis of American Christian sermons especially those about the USA elections to examine their persuasive effectiveness.

The findings have shown that the persuasive appeal of pathos is highly resorted to by the American Christian preachers so that the congregation will be receptive to and convinced by the preacher's message.

They also have shown that resorting to the strategy of the non- observance of conversational maxims means that American Christian preachers breach one or more of the conversational maxims to express their messages indirectly by the strategy of flouting and opting out.

The study suggests executing further research works on the pragmatics of persuasiveness used in sermons by adopting different pragmatic theories and strategies.-