Abstract

While previous studies on hymns traditionally concentrate on historical authorship, musical composition, or general theological themes, there is a distinct shortage of rigorous linguistic investigations analyzing how specific word choices, archaisms, metaphorical projections, and semantic patterns work together to produce spiritual and emotional effects on listeners. Hence, this study addresses this gap by conducting a detailed lexico-semantic investigation of a selection of hymns. The paper focuses on five key lexico-semantic features: archaic diction, metaphor, personification, repetition, and collocation. Employing Conceptual Metaphor Theory as a theoretical framework, the paper examines how these linguistic elements are utilised to construct spiritual and emotional meaning while reflecting the devotional traditions and theological framework of Christian worship. The analysis reveals that hymn writers strategically employ archaic diction to establish a solemn and elevated sacred register, metaphor to render abstract theological concepts comprehensible through concrete source domains, personification to grant intentional agency to abstract spiritual states, repetition to facilitate mnemonic retention and entrench doctrine into collective memory, and collocations to emphasize genre-specific lexical habits and shared devotional conventions. These linguistic choices allow the texts to appeal to the devotional sentiments of worshippers while articulating profound theological truths within the Christian tradition. The paper concludes that the selected hymns serve as a rich source of linguistic insights into the composition of sacred verse, reflecting the complex interplay between language, religion, poetry, and culture in Christian devotional discourse.