Symbolic wisdoms; distinguished but communicative wisdoms in the form of imagery (designs or symbols) by which a country, tribe, or ethnic group use to convey its rich culture and philosophies, have since been used in many mediums to communicate to people. Among the Ghanaians, the most popular symbolic wisdom "Gye Nyame" which translates as "except God", symbolizing God's supremacy and omnipotent is not only conveyed in textile design and architectural buildings but also in traditional Ghanaian furniture items. Among the Chinese, Dragon (Lóng), which symbolizes imperial power and authority, protection, good luck, male vigor, and fertility, is the most popular Chinese distinguished symbolic wisdom not only conveyed in textile design and architectural buildings but also in the traditional furniture items they use. There are more symbolic wisdoms used by the two countries in their Traditional furniture industry. They are to serve as a vessel for expression, posing a question or suggesting a possible answer. It is, however, a worry that though most Ghanaians and Chinese users of Traditional Furniture items with wisdoms conveyed in them know and can mention some associated with them respectively, they do not know the meaning or message the symbolic wisdoms carry. Given this, the study primarily aimed at researching the various symbolic wisdoms conveyed in the traditional Ghanaian and Chinese furniture items, to educate users to have indepth knowledge and understanding of their preferred symbols when conveyed in furniture items. The survey research design using the qualitative approach was adopted. The convenience and purposive sampling techniques were considered to select a sample size of 25 respondents each from the two countries for the study (50 respondents). A significant percentage; 55% and 43% users respectively of Traditional Ghanaian and Chinese furniture items with symbolic wisdoms conveyed in them do not know the meaning or message the symbolic wisdoms carry. The study is expected to help educate the users to get in-depth knowledge and understanding of the message the symbols carry rather than just picking and using crafty symbolic wisdom(s). Both Ghanaian and Chinese users are encouraged to find out the meaning and the message a preferred symbolic wisdom carries before it is used. Again, further studies need to be done on the influence symbolic wisdom(s) has/have on users, and how it/they corelates with their behaviour. Furthermore, studies on other peculiar symbolic wisdom conveyed in furniture items found in temples, churches, mosques, etc. needs to be researched.
Religious discourse offers significant value for linguistic analysis. Functional analysis of religious texts provides a lexico-semantic approach to interpreting these discourses, though it remains underexplored in the literature. To fill this gap, the study undertook a functional analysis of the Parable of the Sower within the framework of transitivity. A mixed-method approach was employed. The text was taken from the Modern English Version (MEV) (Mark 4:1-20). The process types and their participants and the worldview of the parable were analysed within the framework. The material process type dominated the text, occurring 42 times. This was followed by the relational, mental, verbal and behavioural process types. The actor participant dominated the data. The text is highly action-oriented with the world of the text concerned with happenings, movements and tangible actions. The worldview of the parable could be described as: the nature of Christians upon receiving the word and instructions towards bearing fruits. Enthusiasm, materialism, double-minded and being stressed characterize the nature of Christians upon receiving the word while commitment, focus, steadfastness and faithfulness represent the instructions towards seed bearing. The textual and interpersonal metafunctions of language should be employed to consolidate the findings presented in this paper.
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