In This Guide:

• Linguistics: The Core Research
  • Reference Works
  • Finding Articles
  • The Web of Knowledge
  • Finding Books
  • Useful Web Resources
    
• Language and the Brain
  
• Languages of the World
• Language and Society
• Historical Linguistics
• Linguistic Tools

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Linguistics: the Core Research

If you're studying phonetics, phonology, morphology, grammar, syntax, lexicography, or semantics the resources below are good places to start.

Reference Works

• The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics
  Location: REF P29 .E48 2006
  Signed articles with bibliographies. Many are illustrated. Volume 10 contains a glossary and an index.
• The International Encyclopedia of Linguistics
  Location: REF P29 .I58 2003
  Signed articles, cross-referenced, with bibliographies and some illustrations.
  
• The Lexicon of Linguistics
  You can search this online lexicon or browse alphabetical lists of linguistic terms.
• The Blackwell Companion to Syntax
  Location: Ref P291 .B53 2006
  Comprehensive survey of the field of syntax as it has been studied for the last 40 years. Includes 77 case studies written up in detail by leading researchers in the field.
  

Finding Scholarly Journals

Some articles may be available online in full text while others may not be. For help finding the full text of articles for which you have citations, see this guide.

• Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts
  This database is the premier linguistics database. It also links to a thesaurus (click on the Thesaurus Search button) which will tell you the best terms to use when you search.
• MLA International Bibliography
  This indexes the primary language and literature journals, including those dedicated to the study of linguistics.
  
• Academic Search Premier
  This is a broad database that includes articles from many areas of study. For that reason, it's very useful if your topic is interdisciplinary. It also includes several core linguistics journals such as Studies in Language, Computational Linguistics, Journal of Sociolinguistics, Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, and the Journal of English Linguistics.
• Humanities International Complete
  Includes several linguistic and socio-linguistic journals.
  
• ProQuest Research Library
  This is another broad, interdisciplinary database. It also includes indexing for journals such as Language and Communication, the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, and Applied Psycholinguistics.

The Web of Knowledge

• Web of Knowledge
  Not only can you look for citations of books and articles on your topic, but you can also do a "Cited Reference Search" to find out how many people have cited a particular work or author and what the citing sources are, as well as what citations are contained in a particular work. To do this kind of search, click "Cited Reference Search" and enter the author's name and the year the work was published and then click "Search." Select all relevant results from the next page and then click "Finish Search."
  

Finding Books

• Bridge
  Bridge searches the books and journals held here and at St. Olaf. If you use the advanced search and enter "linguistics" and then select "subject contains" from the drop-down box, you'll be able to see all the books that are primarily about topics in linguistics. Keep track of the subject terms you see because you may be able to construct a variety of useful searches from these terms. If you want to browse the stacks, here are some useful call number ranges to know:
  • P1-1091: Philology, Linguistics
    • P101-410: Language. Linguistic theory. Comparative grammar
    • P118-118.7: Language acquisition
    • P121-149: Science of language (Linguistics)
    • P201-299: Comparative grammar
    • P375-381: Linguistic geography
• WorldCat
  While Bridge searches Carleton and St Olaf's libraries, WorldCat searches thousands of libraries across the nation and around the world. The subject terms you see in WorldCat are identical to those in Bridge, so you can easily move between the two systems collecting useful search terms. You can also use the "Request via ILLiad" link within any book's record if you want that book delivered to you here.
  

Useful Web Resources

• Linguistics Resources from SIL
  SIL collects and organizes links to linguistics sources on the internet. You can also search these sources.
  

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Language and the Brain

• Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts
  This database is the premier linguistics database. It also links to a thesaurus (click on the Thesaurus Search button) which will tell you the best terms to use when you search.
  
• PsychInfo
  Neurolinguists and psychologists often study language and the brain, and the journals indexed here should include much of that research. You won't be able to use search terms that are quite as specific as you could in Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts because the search mechanisms in place were designed for psychologists rather than linguists. 
  
• CSA Neurosciences Abstracts
  Includes indexing for Brain Research, Cognition, and the Journal of Neurolinguistics. Again, the search mechanisms were not designed for linguists, but the content should be highly relevant for most neurolinguistics research.
  
• Web of Science
  Not only can you look for citations of books and articles on your topic, but you can also do a "Cited Reference Search" to find out how many people have cited a particular work or author and what the citing sources are, as well as what citations are contained in a particular work. To do this kind of search, click "Cited Reference Search" and enter the author's name and the year the work was published and then click "Search." Select all relevant results from the next page and then click "Finish Search."
  

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Languages of the World

Languages

• Ethnologue: Languages of the World
  Ref P371 .E83 2005
  This book lists the languages of the world, the populations that use the languages, language families, and dialects. You can browse the online version of the book, or search it.
• Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts
  This database is the premier linguistics database. It also links to a thesaurus (click on the Thesaurus Search button) which will tell you the best terms to use when you search.
  

Mapping Linguistics

• Atlas of World Languages
  Ref G1046.E3 A83 2006
• The World Atlas of Language Structures
  Ref P143 .W67 2005
• MLA Language Map of the United States
  This is a fully interactive site that presents data on language use from the 2000 United States Census. You can generate maps that display simple concentrations of spoken language, comparison maps, or maps overlayed with lakes, highways, and more.

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Language and Society

The study of language is a highly interdisciplinary study. Below are some resource that are important to linguistics and to other areas of study (such as psychology and sociology) that cover linguistic topics fairly extensively.

Linguistic Focus

• Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts
  This database is the premier linguistics database. It also links to a thesaurus (click on the Thesaurus Search button) which will tell you the best terms to use when you search.
• MLA International Bibliography
  This indexes the primary language and literature journals, including those dedicated to the study of linguistics.

Focus on Other Disciplines but cover linguistic topics

• Sociological Abstracts
  Sociologists often study language and culture. "Linguistics" and "sociolinguistics" are two of the descriptors that you can use in this databases to focus your search on these particular topics in sociology.
  
• Anthropological Literature
  Like sociologists, anthropologists spend a great deal of time tracking the connections between languages and cultures. "Linguistics" is a subject word in this database that can help you narrow your search.
  
• ERIC
  Educators are interested in brain development, language, and similar related topics. "Linguistics" and "Applied Linguistics" are two of their relevant descriptors.
  
• PsychInfo
  Brain function and language are deeply connected, so there is a lot written about language and linguistics in the field of psychology. "Psycholinguistics" and "Neurolinguistics" are two of the descriptors that may be of help in this database.
  

Broad topical coverage

• Humanities International Complete
  Includes several linguistic and socio-linguistic journals.
  
• Academic Search Premier
  This is a broad database that includes articles from many areas of study. For that reason, it's very useful if your topic is interdisciplinary. It also includes several core linguistics journals such as Studies in Language, Computational Linguistics, Journal of Sociolinguistics, Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, and the Journal of English Linguistics.
• ProQuest Research Library
  This is another broad, interdisciplinary database. It also includes indexing for journals such as Language and Communication, the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, and Applied Psycholinguistics.
• Web of Knowledge
  Not only can you look for citations of books and articles on your topic, but you can also do a "Cited Reference Search" to find out how many people have cited a particular work or author and what the citing sources are, as well as what citations are contained in a particular work.

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Historical Linguistics

• L'Année Philologique
  Covers articles about Greco-Roman archaeology, history, law, linguistics and literature, philosophy, and science and technology from the 2nd millennium BCE to 800 CE.
  
• Nestor
  An international bibliography of Aegean studies, Homeric society, Indo-European linguistics, and related fields.

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Linguistics Tools

SIL makes a variety of fonts available for download via it's web site. There are a few fonts for IPA available, as well as several other fonts and keyboard utilities.

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