Linguistics 300
You Want to Find What Language?: Syntax Ling. 300
Subject Guide for Linguistics:
You will find background information on where to find the best encyclopedias, appropriate indexes for locating journal articles, and quick links to online resources.
Identifying and Naming Your Language
Ethnologue
Look here identify languages, dialects and the alternative names for them, to identify the family to which the language or dialect belongs, to find the geographic region where it is spoken and to get the number of speakers. Ethnologue is also available in print at call number: P371 .E83 2000 Main Ref.
Encyclopedia Britannica online provides basic information on languages.
Atlas of the World's Languages - P375 .A84 1994 Atlas Case in Main Ref
Includes statistics on number of speakers of languages.
Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics - Online encyclopedia for language and linguistics. Has an index list, subject list and language list as well as full text searching. The old edition is in Main Refernce at P29 .E48 1994.
Everyone starts with keywords BUT subjects are better!
To find a language, use the name of the language PLUS the word language. Add any specific information you wish to find about that language last.
Type is to the LC Subject Search:
English Language
Spanish Language
Hopi Language
You may add subdivisions to your search:
Dictionaries
Grammars
Dialects (May also add a place like Canada)
Syntax (you may need to use Grammar, the boarder term)
Examples:
Navajo Language Dictionaries
French Language Dialects Canada
Maya language Grammar
English Language Syntax
Finding Articles
Now that you have the name and the family of your language it is time to find articles. Just as there are generally agreed upon names for languages, there is also generally agreed upon terms used in the linguistics. In a data bases, the thesaurus allows us to explore the application of the terms in that data base.
Central Search: For linguistics there is a special section in the Library's new Central Search Service. You may search LLBA and MLA at the same time.
LLBA ( Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts)
LLBA
has an excellent thesaurus. Try searching for Syntax in the Thesaurus. Now see if you can find your language name in the thesaurus.
MLA: Bibliography of the Modern Language Association
MLA
does not have a good thesaurus but it does have a great name index.
LABS: Linguistic Abstracts
LABS
does not have a thesaurus but it does have a list of subdisciplines which helps you limit your search. It does not link to the library's journal holdings.
Useful and/or Fun Web sites:
Sara Heitshu
Linguistics Librarian
307-2781