Audience Perception of Synonyms from the Pulpit: A Case among Six Church Ancillary Groups in Madina

Abstract: This work investigated audience perception of messages that contained synonyms. Some church members opined that synonyms changed meanings of messages intended by Ministers of the Christian religion. The study was conducted among 161 church members drawn from six church ancillary groups in Madina, a suburb of Accra. The groups were selected from Orthodox, Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches in Madina. A qualitative approach was used in this study. It was found that sets of words used as synonyms did not make any much difference in meaning to the majority of the members in the audience nor did it have any significant effect on their perception of the messages preached from the pulpits. The work concludes that, so long as synonym use in the pulpits does not create any misunderstanding among the audience, its ’ use by Ministers of the Christian faith will continue