This document discusses students' creative language use and whether it constitutes acceptable collocations. It defines common phrases, creative language, and collocations. Examples are provided of each. The document proposes criteria for determining if students' creative language is acceptable, such as intelligibility to native English speakers, common usage based on Google searches, and frequency. Implications for teaching include teaching common phrases, moderating students' creative language, encouraging extensive reading, and correcting grammar. The conclusion states that students' creative language should be encouraged as long as it meets the proposed criteria of being intelligible and acceptable.

1. 5/3/2015
LIA Int’l Conference 2015, April
29 – May 1, Yogyakarta 1
STUDENTS’ CREATIVE
LANGUAGE IN ACTION:
TO WHAT EXTENT IS IT
ACCEPTABLE COLLOCATION?
By:
Ferry Antoni

2. 5/3/2015
LIA Int’l Conference 2015, April
29 – May 1, Yogyakarta
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Students’ English
 Common fixed phrases or expressions
(CP) vs creative language (CL)
 Lower-order thinking language
functions vs higher-order thinking
language functions
 Acquiring, picking vs learning, creating

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LIA Int’l Conference 2015, April
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Examples
 CP  thought-provoking, own gadget, their
own gadget, people have their own gadget,
who doesn’t know alcohol?
 CL  imagination burst out, makes
imagination burst out, makes my imagination
burst out (Phrases and expressions taken
from Antoni and Radiana 2001 and Antoni
2009, and students’ current works);
‘Innovative Your Mood Living’ (A slogan of a
furniture business in Cimareme, Padalarang)

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Nature of Creative Language:
Collocation
 Building blocks of language, phrases,
expressions, creative language, collocation
 Chomsky (1965 and 1966): the creative aspect
of language
 Creative language, collocation: “a group of
words students create which belong together
and which are accepted to be common and/or
English-sounding as judged by native speakers
of English or as used by a majority of users”

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Categories
 Common fixed phrases or expressions (CP)
 Common idioms (CI)
 Expressions prompted by local pragmatic
norms and cultural values (EP) (Antoni and
Gunawan 2005 and Antoni 2010)
 CL (Examples taken from Antoni and
Radiana 2001 and Antoni 2009, and
students’ current works)

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29 – May 1, Yogyakarta
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Examples
 CP  obvious
 CI  obvious
 EP  Where are you going?, I want to thank God for
the opportunity given to me to present this essay, I
am sorry if I made mistakes in my presentation.
Mistakes are from me, the truth is from God (Antoni
and Gunawan 2005 and Antoni 2010)
 CL  make the information as a motivator, refresh
our mind, make our motivation higher, disavowing
God’s existence, marry the same gender, disobey the
limit (Antoni and Radiana 2001 and Antoni 2009)

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Students’ CL: More Examples
- Do criminal activity; they get drunk and do criminal
activity
- Prepared my mentality; I had prepared my mentality
since my mother told me…
- The awesomeness of the temple; the awesomeness
of the biggest temple; we couldn’t feel the
awesomeness of the biggest temple Borobudur
- My imagination burst out; makes my imagination
burst out
- Take a pray; in the morning after take a pray
- The taste is delicious

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Verification: How Students’ CL Is
Acceptable
- Intelligibility
- Native speakers’ assessment
- Commonness—its coinage and use by
others  Google “fixed phrase” search
e.g. ‘professional hypocrisy’, ‘awakening
dormant customers’

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Verification: How Students’ CL Is
Acceptable (Cont.)
- In the absence of native speakers’
assessment  intelligible and common
to a degree, i.e., Google “fixed phrase”
search results (as of the time they were
searched):
 refresh our mind (32,200), make
our motivation higher (4), disavowing
God’s existence (5,260),

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Verification: How Students’ CL Is
Acceptable (Cont. 2)
marry the same gender (23,000), disobey
the limit (20,700), (they) do criminal
activity (3,200), prepared my mentality
(9,650), the awesomeness of the temple
(5), take a pray (61,500), the taste is
delicious (140,000). When moderated,
use the information as a motivator (6), let my
imagination burst out (10)

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Implication on Teaching
- Teach CP
- Moderate students’ CL or collocations
- Encourage extensive reading
- Fixed the grammar
e.g.
I have to take my mother to the hospital  I
had to take my mother to the hospital; I am
flu  I am having a flu (Antoni and Gunawan
2005 and Antoni 2010)

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Conclusion
Students’ CL should be encouraged in
such a way that it is only intelligible and
acceptable dwelling on the criteria just
proposed