A corpus-based analysis of English synonyms: real, genuine, and authentic

This study aims to investigate the similarities and differences of the three English synonyms: real, genuine and authentic with focus on meaning, degree of formality and noun collocations. The results, based on the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDOCE), Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (OALD) and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), signify that the target synonymous adjectives are loose synonyms. From the information derived from dictionaries, real, genuine and authentic are similar in core meanings, but each of them also has some differences in the senses of meaning. In terms of use, it is clear that the three synonyms cannot be used interchangeably in all contexts, as indicated by the differences of the distribution across eight genres and the characteristics of noun collocations.