Linguistics: A Research Guide
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language, including phonology, syntax, semantics,
pragmatics, bilingualism, sociolinguistics, and computational linguistics. This guide introduces
researchers to some of the basic informational sources on the topic. The terms and phrases listed
in the subject headings below can be used to search for more materials in the library’s catalog
and research databases. If you need further assistance, please ask a librarian.
Books
Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, 2nd ed. edited by David Crystal. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1997. ISBN: 0521596556.
Each section is a self-contained presentation of a major theme in language study, with crossreferences included to related sections and topics. Three indexes provide access by language,
language families, dialects, scripts, authors, topics, and personalities.
Compendium of the World’s Languages, 2nd ed. edited by George L. Campbell. 2 vols. New
York: Routledge, 2000. ISBN: 0415202981.
Contains over 5,000 separate languages, many with numerous dialects, gives brief history of
each language, provides phonology, morphology, syntax, and typical word order for each
language.
Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics edited by R. E. Asher and J. M. Y. Simpson. 10 vols.
New York: Pergamon, 1994. ISBN: 0080359434.
Covers many different views and perspectives encountered in research and thinking in the fields
of linguistics and language studies, emphasizing the multidisciplinary nature of the subject.
International Encyclopedia of Linguistics, 2nd ed. by William J. Frawley. 4 vols. New York: Oxford
University Press, 2003. ISBN: 0195139771.
Articles include bibliographies, tables, charts, and maps to illustrate concepts. Comprehensive
and authoritative with special attention paid to the interrelations within branches of linguistics.
Linguistics: A Guide to the Reference Literature by Anna L. DeMiller. Englewood, CO: Libraries
Unlimited, 2000. ISBN: 1563086190.
Coverage spans from 1957 to the present. Detailed citations describe and evaluate each work,
often offering comparisons to similar titles.
Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics. Essex, England: Longman, 1985. ISBN: 0582557089.
Lengthy definitions that provide references for those who want to look deeper into a topic. The
dictionary also provides cross-references to other relevant definitions.
Oxford Companion to the English Language by Tom McArthur. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1998. ISBN: 0192800612.
Entries encompass writing and speech, linguistics, rhetoric, literary terms; related topics such as
bilingual education, child language acquisition, sign language, and psycholinguistics; and
biographies of figures who have influenced the shape or study of English.
Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. edited by John A. Simpson and Edmund S. Weiner. 20 vols.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. ISBN: 0198611862.
OED covers words from across the English-speaking world, from North America to South Africa,
from Australia and New Zealand to the Caribbean. It also offers the best in etymological analysis,
listings of variant spellings, and shows pronunciation using the International Phonetic Alphabet.
Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus, 3rd. ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2003. ISBN: 0618254145.
Available online at www.bartleby.com/62/.
Features of the thesaurus include succinct word definitions and an innovative hypertext linked
category index, which leads you to list of antonyms for the word you select.
Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics edited by Hadumod Bussuman, et al. New
York: Routledge, 1996. ISBN: 0415022258.
Provides a survey of the key terminology and languages of more than 30 subdisciplines of
linguistics.
Web Sites
Electronic Journals for Linguistics—University of Delaware Library
www2.lib.udel.edu/subj/ling/ej.htm
List of links to journals for linguistics.
Linguist List
www.linguistlist.org
Provides information on language and language analysis, and the discipline of linguistics with the
infrastructure necessary to function in the digital world.
Linguistics, Natural Language, and Computational Linguistics Meta-index
www-nlp.stanford.edu/links/linguistics.html
Annotated list to linguistic resources on the Internet.
Linguistic Society of America
www.lsadc.org
Organization founded to advance the scientific study of language.
Subject Headings
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applied linguistics—dictionaries
language and languages—dictionaries
language and languages—encyclopedias
language and languages—study and teaching—dictionaries
linguistics—dictionaries
linguistics—encyclopedias