Patterns of Cohesion in Friday Sermons in the UAE and Their Role in Enhancing Social Communication

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Bibliographic Details
Title: Patterns of Cohesion in Friday Sermons in the UAE and Their Role in Enhancing Social Communication
Language: English
Authors: Fatima Saif Aldahmani (ORCID 0000-0002-7115-1055), Anas Al Huneety (ORCID 0000-0002-1123-6102), Mariam Alzaidi (ORCID 0009-0007-3877-8546), Saeed Alketbi (ORCID 0009-0004-2981-2691), Abdulmaeen Almansoori (ORCID 0009-0000-3257-4760)
Source: Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics. 2025 11(1):68-78.
Availability: Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics. Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Anafartalar Campus Faculty of Education Department of Foreign Language Education, Canakkale 07100, Turkey. e-mail: editor@ejal.info; Website: https://ejal.info/
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 11
Publication Date: 2025
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Connected Discourse, Computational Linguistics, Intonation, Suprasegmentals, Arabic, Discourse Analysis, Religion, Semantics, Phrase Structure, Religious Factors, Language Rhythm, Phonology, Clergy, Grammar, Islam, Oral Language
Geographic Terms: United Arab Emirates
ISSN: 2149-1135
Abstract: Friday sermons portray patterns of lexical cohesion which can demonstrate how effective communication is achieved. This study proposes a model of lexical cohesion that fits the spoken discourse of Friday sermons in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). To that end, a corpus of 25 sermons was analyzed to identify patterns of cohesion and show the impact of cohesive devices on the delivery of these sermons. The sermons were selected through purposive sampling to ensure a diverse representation of this domain. Findings show that in addition to the three categories of Arabic cohesion viz., reiteration relations, collocations and semantic relations, a novel category is introduced known as prosodic cohesion. This new category refers to the use of dynamic prosodic aspects like stress, intonation and rhyming, to create unity and to communicate ideas clearly and more efficiently. The study found that repetition is highly used in the corpus due to the root repetition system in Arabic, where one consonantal root can generate numerous words, enhancing the unity of the text and highlighting core themes. As this study is limited to a sample of 25 sermons, future research should take larger samples to generalize the findings of this study. The study recommends incorporating prosodic aspects in teaching religious discourse to make sermons more impactful.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2025
Accession Number: EJ1464986
Database: ERIC
Description
Abstract:Friday sermons portray patterns of lexical cohesion which can demonstrate how effective communication is achieved. This study proposes a model of lexical cohesion that fits the spoken discourse of Friday sermons in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). To that end, a corpus of 25 sermons was analyzed to identify patterns of cohesion and show the impact of cohesive devices on the delivery of these sermons. The sermons were selected through purposive sampling to ensure a diverse representation of this domain. Findings show that in addition to the three categories of Arabic cohesion viz., reiteration relations, collocations and semantic relations, a novel category is introduced known as prosodic cohesion. This new category refers to the use of dynamic prosodic aspects like stress, intonation and rhyming, to create unity and to communicate ideas clearly and more efficiently. The study found that repetition is highly used in the corpus due to the root repetition system in Arabic, where one consonantal root can generate numerous words, enhancing the unity of the text and highlighting core themes. As this study is limited to a sample of 25 sermons, future research should take larger samples to generalize the findings of this study. The study recommends incorporating prosodic aspects in teaching religious discourse to make sermons more impactful.
ISSN:2149-1135