A corpus-based study of the near-synonyms: loyal, faithful, and devoted

The application of synonyms in written or spoken contexts has always been challenging for all levels of L2 learners. Therefore, this study was conducted to 1) examine the similarities and differences among the three synonyms loyal, faithful, and devoted in terms of meanings, 2) explore how loyal, faithful, and devoted are distributed in different genres in relation to their frequency of occurrence and degree of formality, and 3) study the similarities and differences among loyal, faithful, and devoted in terms of noun and adverb collocations. The primary sources of data are the two online dictionaries; the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English and Cambridge Dictionary and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). The results from the two online dictionaries showed that the three target synonyms share the same core meanings, but each synonym carries unique connotations. The results from the frequency of distribution across genres suggested that devoted occurs most frequently in formal contexts i.e. academic texts. In terms of the common noun and adverb collocates, the top-thirty noun and adverb collocates were categorized into themes based on their semantic preference. The analysis revealed clear thematic differences among the three synonyms. As a result, loyal, faithful, and devoted cannot be used interchangeably in all contexts due to the distinctions of connotations, formality degree, and semantic preference of the noun and adverb collocates.