Discourse Analysis of the Our Father

Kaitlyn Krahe – Our Father Analysis

The Our Father is a prayer that is central to Christianity. Prayer is a staple element to religious ceremony and ritual as it enables individuals to experience a spiritual connection with their omnipotent being of preference. Depending on the context in which the prayer is uttered, its function can vary slightly. For example; a prayer can be spoken by an entire Parish in order to communicate with God whilst also fostering a sense connectedness between the congregation itself. Conversely, a prayer may serve as a private and personal ritual for an individual.

The relatively formal register of this text is necessitated by the solemn and reverent nature of this text type. It is likely that the Our Father was initially translated into English using a register that was relatively formal for its time. Since then, liberalisation, colloquialisation, the push for an egalitarian society and social democracy has meant that we are seeing informal language appearing increasingly in the provinces that were once reserved for formal language. The fact that language is becoming more casual means that texts such as the Our Father appear extremely formal by today's standard.

The prayer is constituted by both declarative (lines 1-5) and imperative sentences (lines 6-10). Whilst the declarative sentences are appropriate, one could contend that it is paradoxical to utilise imperative sentences that have a demanding nature and high modality in a text type that is intended to be extremely reverent and respectful of a deity. Further contrasting to the text's intended formality are the mostly coordinating conjunctions used between clauses (line 10, 9, 7, 8) to form compound sentences. However, the coordinating conjunctions help create fluidity and cohesiveness within the text.

The archaic morphemes “art” (second person present indicative of “to be”) and “thy” (possessive pronoun of 2nd person singular) allude to the age of the prayer. They would be considered non standard in today's spoken domain. Such relics indicate that the prayer is doomed to be frozen in time unless attempts are made to modernise it. Otherwise in years to come, as such morphemes become obsolete, the prayer will shift from being highly formal to difficult to understand.

A variant of fronting known as left-dislocation occurs in line 1. The subject “Father” is given the initial position in the clause for extra focus. When spoken, the significance of the subject would be highlighted both by its location in the clause and by the implied pause denoted by the comma. After this initial reference, pronouns such as “who” and “thy” are use to refer back to the subject to prevent constant repetition of “Father”. This contributes to the fluency and cohesiveness of the text. The chaining effect of the “topic before comment” nature of the information flow, or front focus of the subject also gives the text coherence.

Use of the agentless passive voice in line 2 heightens the gravitas connoted by the “hallowed” nature of the Lord's name. The omission of the agent implies that “the Father” is considered holy and respected by everyone rather than just a particular group. The object-verb inversion within the clause is a variant of fronting which functions to further stress the significance of the “Father's” holiness.

Clefting occurs in line 6 in order to divide what would otherwise be one clause into two smaller and more distinct demands with a comma. Rather than presenting the two requests for “daily bread” and “this day” in one continuous clause, the clefting stresses that each of the aspects are equally important.

The punctuation connotes prosody graphemically. Lines 1 to 4 end with commas, which in speech signal a small pause. Contrastingly, lines 7, 8, 10 and 5 each end with a full stop. Typically, a slightly extended pause is signalled by full stops in contrast to commas. Consequently, lines 7, 8, 10 and 5 seem more disjointed from the text and appear to stand out.

The elements of phonological pattering such as rhyme (lines 3 and 4) and assonance (lines 7 8 9) in the text enables it to conform well to its formal, spoken mode. These aspects of the prayer also contribute the rhythmic, chant-like quality that prayers tend to acquire when spoken en masse. These qualities enhance the reverent nature of the prayer.