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Linguistics

Reference

Dictionaries, Directories, Handbooks, Encyclopedias, etc. - Reference works are useful when you need to obtain quick facts, define the terms and scope of your search, or get a broad overview of a topic. Best Bets! are marked with aBest Bet!.
Products available to registered McMaster Students/Staff/Faculty Only are marked with a McMaster Use Only.

Encyclopedias

International Encyclopedia of Linguistics (online) McMaster Use Only
Available online and in print.
MILLS Bookstacks P 29 .I58 2003

Oxford English Dictionary (OED) Online McMaster Use Only
Historical dictionary of the words that have formed the English vocabulary from the time of earliest records down to the present day with all the relevant facts concerning their form, sense-history, pronunciation, and etymology. Use the OED search box on the right to look up a word right from this page! (Note: only works on campus.)

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language
MILLS Bookstacks P29.C64 1997

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics (online) McMaster Use Only

Contains over 3,150 brief entries for linguistics terms.

Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Sciences of Language
MILLS Bookstacks P29.D813

A Dictionary of Linguistics & Phonetics
MILLS Bookstacks P29.C65 2003

The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots 2nd ed.
MILLS Bookstacks P 615 .A43 2000

 

Language Dictionaries

Language
Title (location, if applicable)
German The Concise Oxford-Duden German Dictionary McMaster Use Only
Online
Italian The Pocket Oxford Italian Dictionary McMaster Use Only
Online
Japanese The Oxford Starter Japanese Dictionary
MILLS Bookstacks PL 679 .O946 2000
Polish Oxford-PWN Polish-English / English-Polish Dictionary
MILLS Reference (2nd Floor) PG 6640 .094 2005
Russian The Oxford Russian Dictionary /
Russian-English
MILLS Reference (2nd floor) PG 2640 .O93 1997
Spanish The Concise Oxford Spanish Dictionary McMaster Use Only
Online

Oxford English Dictionary

Note: this search box only works on campus. To search the OED Online when you're off campus, click here.

 

Books

Use McMaster's Library Catalogue to find books on your topic. Click the Help link for searching tips & strategies.

Some basic subject headings for Linguistics include:
New Titles

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to View Recently Received Titles Related to Linguistics

 

Articles/Databases

Use article databases to find out which journals, magazines, and newspapers have published articles on your topic. Most useful when recent information is required, or when the topic is too specific to be covered in a book. Best Bets! are marked with aBest Bet!.
Products available to registered McMaster Students/Staff/Faculty Only are marked with a McMaster Use Only.

Article Databases / Indexes

Linguistics and Language Behavior AbstractsBest Bet!
Provides references to journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations, and association papers in all areas of linguistics.
1973 to present
Abstracts only; click for full-text options.

MLA International BibliographyBest Bet!
The premiere database indexing topics in literature, linguistics, and folklore. Published by the Modern Language Association.
1926 to the present
Citations only; click for full-text options.

PsycINFO
A key indexing source for cognitive linguistics and the intersection of linguistics and psychology.
1806 to present
Abstracts only; click for full-text options

Web of Science

The Web of Science consists of five separate multidisciplinary citation indexes that can be searched independently or in combination. Information from these indexes can be retrieved by author, subject term, journal title, address, and cited reference (or bibliography). 

JSTOR
Provides extensive fulltext runs of several core journals, including Language, American Journal of Philology, and American Speech. Does not contain the most recent issues of journals (can be embargoed for up to five years).

 

 

Websites

The Internet is home to useful web sites on many subjects. Unlike the resources on other tabs, the following resources are selected from the free web. Remember to critically evaluate web resources, since web site content is usually unmonitored and unregulated.

Ethnologue: Languages of the World
http://www.ethnologue.com/

Glossary of Linguistic Terms
http://www.sil.org/linguistics/glossaryoflinguisticterms/index.htm

Linguistics, Natural Language, and Computational Linguistics Meta-Index
http://nlp.stanford.edu/links/linguistics.html

Omniglot: Writing Systems & Languages of the World
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/

 

New: December 2009

Language Portal of Canada
Includes the Termium Plus English/French translation corpus

Associations & Organizations

Professional, academic, advocacy and other types of associations and organizations involved in your subject area.

ACL/CLA – Canadian Linguistic Association
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~cla-acl/

ILA - International Linguistic Association
http://www.ilaword.org/

International Phonetic Association
http://www.arts.gla.ac.uk/IPA/ipa.html

Linguistic Society of America
http://www.lsadc.org/

Citation and Style Guides

These guides give information on the elements required when citing works and on presenting information clearly and succinctly. Best Bets! are marked with aBest Bet!.
Products available to registered McMaster Students/Staff/Faculty Only are marked with a McMaster Use Only.

Reworks

RefWorks is a web-based citation management tool that allows you to:

  • create your own personal database of references imported from text files or online databases
  • quickly create footnotes, in-text references and bibliographies in the style you choose
  • access your references online

Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue

A comprehensive guide to writing, formatting and citing sources in APA, MLA, Chicago and other styles.

APA Style Guide to Electronic References

Assembling a List of Works Cited in Your Paper (from Duke University)
Provides side-by-side examples of references in APA, MLA, Chicago, and Turabian style.

Chicago Manual of Style Online