A Corpus-Based Study of Near Synonyms: Should and Have To

Abstract

This study was intended to examine the use of two synonymous modals, should and have to, focusing on their collexemes. Corpus-based approach, which is the study of language based on a collection of electronic texts, is a very effective way to study vocabulary because it provides a resource of natural texts and allows language learners and researchers to investigate actual usages and authentic features of vocabulary. This study utilizes the data from British National Corpus (BNC) and analyzed them following the methods of Gries and Stefanowitsch (2004)’s distinctive collexeme analysis, which enables to differentiate strong and preferable collocates of the two synonymous expressions. The findings indicate that the two modal verbs have distinctive collexemes: should prefers verbs with stative sense and have to prefers verbs with dynamic sense.