Chapter II
Literature Review
In this Chapter, the researcher will discuss the literature in a given area of study. This
chapter is more than an annotated bibliography or a summary, because the researcher is
organizing her sources in terms of the overall relationship to her own project. The aim of this
chapter is to give the writer idea of the previous study of the research. The researcher will use
thematic review on this chapter.
The study of collocation is a common and important study in languages especially
English language. There are so many researches are done by other researchers about this study.
Some of them researched about Grammatical and Lexical English Collocations: Some possible
problems to Indonesian learners of English (Moehkardi), some researched about Long-Span
Collocation and Its Application in Information Retrieval (Vechtomova), some did researched
about High Frequency Collocations and Second Language Learning (Durrant), etc. From all
these previous studies that have been found, the present researcher will be able to get enough
sources for her study.
‘You shall know a word by the company it keeps’ (Firth). J. R Firth is considered as a
father of collocation because he is the one who bring the word “collocation” into linguistic sense.
Talking about Collocation is always related to the grammar and lexicon (Moehkardi, 54). Many
words that are combined with verbs can be used either preposition or adverb, for example, above,
across, along, off, behind, up, etc (Thomson and Martinet, 82). For the additional knowledge on
this term, here is an explanation about collocation:
In English, as in other languages, there are many fixes, identifiable, non- idiomatic phrases and
constructions. Such groups of words are called recurrent combinations, or collocations.
Collocations fall into two major groups: Grammatical Collocations and Lexical Collocations
(Benson, Benson and Ilson, 57)
This research topic about collocation and Indonesian learners is almost similarly the same
as the one who has been researched by Moehkardi. However, there are differences in this
research and Moehkardi’s. The difference is the main purpose of the research. Moehkardi’s
research is mostly focusing on the possible problems occurred to the Indonesian learners and the
types of collocations themselves while this ongoing research is focusing on the reasons of why
the problems occurred. The reasons will vary based on the subjects’ feedback. However,
basically the reason is on the linguistics such as the subjects’ first language acquisitions,
semantics, and psycholinguistics terms.
Semantics term
The study of meaning is one of the reasons of why Indonesian people make mistakes in English
collocations. As we know the communication happened when the receivers get the right idea of
what the speaker said (Hoffman, 4). People can communicate when they understand each other.
This happens if both of them are from the same language background or at least speak the same
languages. Therefore, now we can see a language as a bridge connecting a realm of sounds and
realms of meanings (9). In these sentences “If you buy a big car you’ll have to have to spend
more money” and “If you buy a big car you’ll have to use more money.” Semantically they have
the same meanings which the activity of lessen the amount of money. However, the second
sentence is using the wrong collocation. This is happened to Indonesian English learners when
they try to produce words. They depend too much on the semantics meaning where they find
them just right and understandable. It is a very crucial mistake which is often being ignored by
the non- native speakers of the language.
Second Language Acquisition
For adult second language learners (L2ers), the errors such as grammatical errors, pronunciation
errors, morphological errors cannot be avoided. L2 errors may be fossilize so that no amount of
teaching or correction can undo them. Unlike L1 acquisition, which can be learned successfully
since young, adults’ ability in learning L2 can be varied. Some people are excellent language
learners and some are slow learners (Fromkin, Rodman, Hyams, Collins, Amberer, 338). This is
also happened to the Indonesian English learners. Even though Indonesian learners acquire their
L1 which is Indonesian, not all of them can completely master the English language as their L2.
This theory is very clearly showed how the Indonesian English learners make collocation errors.
Moreover, the errors made are not surprising for them. They are considered as normal errors. We
cannot suppress our ability to use the rules of our language (340). Indonesian has a similar
pattern with English where the pattern is SVO.
For example: I(S) cook (V) rice(O). (English)
Saya(S) memasak(V) nasi(O). (Indonesian)
This similar pattern makes Indonesian English learners easier in learning the language. However,
in learning collocations or phrasal verbs, they need to make an effort in order to memorize or get
used to the words. Unlike L2, L1 has acquired those words and used them in everyday life. The
mistakes on collocation are likely occurred than the mistakes in grammatical forms. When
Indonesian English learners have not got used to the collocation this mistakes such as “She
becomes crazy” made according to their L1 knowledge “Dia menjadi gila”. This mistakes sound
just fine to the non- native speakers, however, to the native- speakers it is sound weird. It is
supposed to be “She is going crazy.” Therefore, collocation is one of the obstacle for Indonesian
English learners in mastering the language.
Psycholinguistics approaches
Psycholinguistics is the psychology of language, including language acquisition by children, the
mental processes underlying adult comprehension and production of speech, language disorders,
etc (Farlex, The Free Online Dictionary). In this research, the researcher will focus more about
the mental processes underlying adult comprehension and production of speech. This
psycholinguistics approaches is one of the approaches that affects Indonesian English learners in
making collocation errors. Psycholinguists conclude a certain conclusion by reflecting on what
human know of words and how they operate which is called lexical competence (Field, 10).
Then, we start by assuming that each language user has a personal vocabulary store or lexicon,
from which they select words for use and to who they refer their words to (Field, 10). There are
four levels in producing words. They are: 1. Message level, where the message is in process 2.
Functional level, where the lexical role is chosen and been given the message and syntactic
function 3. Positional level, where the constituent is made and the affixation is done and 4.
Phonology level, where the words phonology structure is created (Dardjowidjojo, 117). The
researcher assumes that the errors in collocation are related to this process of producing words
especially in the second level where the lexical role is chosen. This is also related to the subjects’
language acquisition. For example: “Have you made your homework?” Make Homework is
wrong collocation. However, when the lexicon meaning is created, the subject knows it as “make
homework” because of the first language acquisition. If the sentence is translated to the original
language of the subject, the sentence will be “Sudah buat PR belum?” The suitable collocation
should be “Do homework”. Therefore, even though the sentence “Have you made your
homework?” is grammatically correct and semantically acceptable, It sounds unnatural to the
native speakers.