A Lexico-Semantic Analysis of Selected Sermons of Pastor David Ibiyeomie and Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah

Sermons are socially consequential speech events in Nigerian public life. While previous studies on Nigerian religious discourse have focused largely on pragmatics, speech acts, and power relations, little attention has been given to the lexico-semantic structure of sermons. This paper investigates the lexico-semantic strategies deployed by two of Nigeria's most influential preachers: Pastor David Ibiyeomie of Salvation Ministries, Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Nigeria. The study analyses two sermon transcripts (one from each preacher) selected from verified organisational websites. Theoretically, it is framed within Lakoff and Johnson's (1980) conceptual metaphor theory, as extended by Kövecses (2002), and Halliday and Hasan's (1976) theory of lexical cohesion, which together serve as complementary analytical lenses for examining metaphorical and cohesive structures in the data. The data were analysed qualitatively using this framework. The study reveals that both preachers strategically employ lexical repetition, metaphorical expressions, semantic fields, and stylistic registers to persuade their audiences and project distinct theological visions. The study concludes that lexico-semantic analysis provides deeper insight into how Nigerian Christian sermons function not only as religious messages but also as social and ideological texts that shape audience perception, spirituality, public and religious consciousness.