Contact Your Subject Librarian
How to Use This Research Guide
This guide is meant to assist you in getting started on your research.
Use the links below for more general information, or click on the green navigation tabs for more specific resources.
Below are some general linguistics resources to get your started on your research...
General Linguistics Research Guide
Online Encyclopedias and Reference
The following links will take you to online encyclopedias and reference manuals to help you get started on your research. Here you can find general background information, definitions, and history on many linguistic terms and concepts.
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Language Sciences (Online)Publication Date: 2010-11-15It includes basic entries for those unfamiliar with a given topic and more specific entries for those seeking more specialized knowledge. It incorporates both well-established findings and cutting-edge research and classical approaches and new theoretical innovations. The volume is aimed at readers who have an interest in some aspect of language science but wish to learn more about the broad range of ideas, findings, practices, and prospects that constitute this rapidly expanding field, a field arguably at the center of current research on the human mind and human society.
- Dictionary of Linguistics and PhoneticsDavid Crystal's A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics has long been the standard single-volume reference for its field. Now available in its sixth edition, it has been revised and updated to reflect the latest terms in the field.
Print Encyclopedias
The library also has a number of print encyclopedias that can be found in the Reference section on the second floor of the library. Reference books cannot be checked out of the library but there are scanners available on the second floor that can be used to scan information from these texts into a PDF which you can email to yourself.
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language by Call Number: P29.C64 2010This new, thoroughly revised edition of the acclaimed Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language incorporates the major developments in language study which have taken place since the mid 1990s. Two main new areas have been added: the rise of electronic communication in all its current forms from email to texting, and the crisis affecting the world's languages, of which half are thought to be so seriously endangered that they will die out this century.
International Encyclopedia of Linguistics by Call Number: Ref P29 .I58 2003Publication Date: 2003-05-01Encompasses the full range of the contemporary field of linguistics, including historical, comparative, formal, mathematical, functional, and philosophical linguistics with special attention given to interrelations within branches of linguistics and to relations of linguistics with other disciplines. Areas of intersection with the social and behavioral sciences--ethnolinguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and behavioral linguistics--receive major coverage, along with interdisciplinary work in language and literature, mathematical linguistics, computational linguistics, and applied linguistics.
Linguistics by Call Number: Ref. Z7001.D45 2000Thoroughly revised and updated with some 500 new entries-including the addition of pertinent Internet sites-this is the only bibliographic guide to information sources for linguistics. Coverage spans from 1957, the publication date of Chomsky's seminal work, to the present, with emphasis on English-language resources. DeMiller's detailed citations describe and evaluate each work, often offering comparisons to similar titles. Its broad coverage and in-depth reviews make this work essential to the research and study of general or theoretical linguistics. The book is also indispensable in the related areas of anthropological linguistics, applied linguistics, mathematical and computation linguistics, psycholinguistics, semiotics, and sociolinguistics, which are all treated in separate chapters, as well as the study of language and languages from a linguistic perspective.
The Linguistics Encyclopedia by Call Number: Ref. P 29 .L52 2002The Linguistics Encyclopedia has been thoroughly revised and updated and a substantial new introduction, which forms a concise history of the field, has been added.
The volume offers comprehensive coverage of the major and subsidiary fields of linguistic study. Entries are alphabetically arranged and extensively cross-referenced, and include suggestions for further reading.
If the library does not have them item, use Worldcat and Interlibrary Loan (ILL) what you need:
- WorldCat (FirstSearch) This link opens in a new windowOCLC catalog of books, web resources, and other material worldwide
- Interlibrary LoanUse this link to borrow books and articles from other libraries
Other Helpful Book Search Tools
- HathiTrust This link opens in a new windowGood source for e-texts, many are freely available because not under copyright restriction. Others would need to be interlibrary loaned because UND is not a partner
Featured Books
Currently, the featured books section highlights some of the library's best handbooks & companions for linguistics, which typically offer the reader an opportunity to survey and learn about a broad field of scholarship in a comprehensive way. They give a snap shop of the discipline covered at the time the book is published. Unlike a retrospective collection of articles, these guides are written or edited as a planned and intentional effort, with chapters and sections interrelating and complimenting one another and thereby tend to be more readable and integrated research works.
Sociolinguistics: a Very Short Introduction by Call Number: P40.E375 2013This Very Short Introduction deals with the social life of language: language in its sociocultural context. The field ranges from micro-analyses to broadly-based policy and planning undertakings. As such, this book draws from sociolinguistics, the sociology of language, and psycholinguistics. The relationship between language and identity - whether of an individual or a group - is a strong thread linking all the topics covered in the book. The "ordinary," instrumental, communicative aspects of language cannot be adequately understood without paying attention to the "symbolic" features that powerfully underpin feelings and attributions of "groupness" and "belonging." The book therefore focuses more on macro sociological areas than to fine-grained analyses of variation in linguistic features (though the latter are not ignored). Edwards explains the differential social evaluations of languages and dialects, how names (and naming) are much more than simple designations, why some languages come to dominate others, as well as questions about the relationship between language and gender, sexist language, the language of poverty, the intertwining of language and religion, and politically driven language planning and policy.
Source Book for Linguistics by Call Number: P121.C62 1998This is a revised and expanded edition of Cowan and Raku an's "Source Book for Linguistics." In addition to the chapters on Phonetics, Phonology, Phonological Alternations, Morphology, Syntax, Sound Change and Historical Reconstruction, there are two new chapters: one on Semantics and one on Grammatical and Lexical Change. In addition, an index of the 93 languages and dialects represented in the book has been added, as well as a revised bibliography.
Handbook of Descriptive Linguistic Fieldwork by Call Number: P128.F53 C44 2011Presents the field of linguistic fieldwork from four points of view: the geographical, the historical, the philosophical and the encyclopedic. It also examines the historical, political, and social variables correlating with fieldwork in different areas of the world. Extensive practical fieldwork tips are provided, as well as a handy sketch of major typological features for use in linguistic analysis.
Finding Articles through Databases
Use databases to find academic articles to continue your research. Below are the most helpful databases for finding relevant articles for linguistics.
- MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new windowSubjects covered include literature, language and linguistics, folklore, literary theory and criticism, and the dramatic arts.
- Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new window
Academic Search Ultimate offers an enormous collection of full-text journals, providing users access to critical information from many sources unique to this database. In addition, it includes peer-reviewed full text for STEM research, as well as for the social sciences and humanities. Scholarly content covers a broad range of important areas of academic study, including anthropology, engineering, law, sciences and more.
- Google Scholar This link opens in a new windowLink for using Google Scholar to connect with UND subscriptions
Good Starting Places for Journals
The following will help you find specific academic journals, most of which are published and peer-reviewed by experts in the field. If you want to narrow your search to a specific topic, country, or issue, finding a journal that publishes in that area can help.
- JSTOR Linguistics TitlesUse the Search Box for specific topics or Browse table of contents for journals
- Sage Journals Languages & LinguisticsMade for browsing journal homepages and setting up alerts to new content more than specific topic searches
- Linguist List of PublicationsInterface to search table of contents for journals and more.
- SIL Language and Culture ArchivesThe Archives contains works collected, compiled, or created by SIL, its strategic partners, or members of ethnolinguistic minority communities. Search and browse over 40,000 resources dating from 1935 to the present that describe, document, and/or communicate in the languages and cultures SIL serves.
- Dissertations & Theses - UND only This link opens in a new window
Dissertations from 1861 - present. Master's theses from 1988 - present. Access to full text of UND theses and dissertations from 1996-present is free. Access to citations and abstracts from other institutions is free.
- Dissertations and Theses - All This link opens in a new window
Dissertations from 1861 - present. Master's theses from 1988 - present. Includes full text from both UND and external dissertations and theses. Hosted by Proquest.
- OCLC WorldCat Dissertations and Theses This link opens in a new windowA database of all dissertations and theses available in WorldCat
Free access to selected UND Scholarly Work
- UND Scholarly CommonsSearch by author or by SIL
- The Psychology of Language (Video)
"You know what's amazing? That we can talk to people, they can make meaning out of it, and then talk back to us. In this episode of Crash Course Psychology, Hank talks to us and tries to make meaning out of how our brains do this thing called Language. Plus, monkeys!"-Video Description - Modern Languages (Oxford Podcasts Series)
Podcasts from the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, delivered in a variety of languages.