Multifaceted approach of corpus analysis for characterizing Christian religious groups

The use of a range of corpus-based methods to systematically examine religious groups from a

language perspective remains relatively unexplored. This paper highlights the procedures and

contributions of five corpus analyses used to examine various Christian religious groups. The target

groups were categorized into mainstream religion, sect, cult, and destructive cult based on their

social characteristics and the linguistic features in the sermons of the leaders were analyzed. The

linguistic patterns reveal the similarities and differences between mainstream religious groups and

sects, differentiate the characteristics of sects from cults, and highlight the potential progression of

cults into destructive cults. All groups are elaborative and persuasive in discourse; however, cults

and destructive cults are more elaborative and persuasive than mainstream religious groups and

sects. This paper allows us to see the significance of language and various corpus-based methods for

identifying the stage of development of a potentially harmful religious group.