A Corpus-based Analysis of bear, stand, endure, and tolerate

Abstract

The analysis of corpus has drawn considerable attention in the fields of linguistics and applied linguistics. Further, SLA researchers indicate that a new era can be opened for English teaching by applying corpus studies to language pedagogy. In this respect, as a corpus approach for vocabulary, this study presents a corpus-based analysis of four English verbs (i.e., bear, stand, endure, and tolerate), representing the meaning ‘put up with.’ Quirk et al. (1985) indicates that bear and stand are used in a negative form with can. Dictionary statements show semantic and syntactic aspects of the four verbs. From the statements, the four verbs are compared on the basis of The Times 1995 Corpus. The verbs are analyzed in terms of negative interpretation, positive interpretation, collocating auxiliaries, syntax of object forms, and collocation. The data analysis shows that these verbs have some semantic and syntactic aspects which are inconsistent with the dictionary statements and explanations in grammar books. Such findings indicate that the dictionaries and grammar books do not describe these verbs correctly enough to reflect actual language use in real life. Thus, the study suggests that teaching materials including dictionaries and grammar books should be developed based on a corpus approach to enhance the reality of the data and contribute to effective language teaching in English learning contexts.