A Corpora-Based Analysis of Rely on and Depend on

The ultimate goal of this paper is to provide a comparative analysis of rely onand depend onin the Corpus of Contemporary American English and the British National Corpus. The COCA clearly shows that the expression rely on governmentis the most preferred by Americans, followed by rely on people, and rely on data. The COCA further indicates thatthe expression depend on slateis the most preferred by Americans, followed by depend on government, and depend on people. The BNC shows, on the other hand, that the expression rely on othersis the most preferred by the British, followed by rely on people, and rely on friends. The BNC further indicates that depend on factorsand depend on othersare the most preferred by the British, followed by depend on age, and depend on food. Finally, in the COCA, the nouns government, luck, welfare, people, information, state, fossil, water, family, oil, food, and thingsare linked to both rely onand depend on, but many nouns are not still linked to both of them. On the other hand, in the BNC, only the nouns state, chance, government, and othersare linked to both rely onand depend on, but many nouns are not still linked to both rely onand depend on. It can thus be inferred from this that rely onis slightly different from depend onin its use.