MLL 331: Topics in Linguistics

RESEARCH GUIDES BY SUBJECT AND COURSE - MLL RESOURCES - SELECTING A TOPIC - LOCATING BOOKS - FINDING JOURNAL ARTICLES - INTERNET RESOURCES - GETTING RESEARCH HELP

SELECTING A TOPIC

Reference works, such as encyclopedias, handbooks, and dictionaries, are a good place to begin your research or search for ideas for a research topic. They provide background information and may provide bibliographies of additional resources for your topic.

The easiest way to find reference works on your topic is to browse the library's reference collection under the appropriate Library of Congress classification. The area for linguistics is "P," but there may be additional sources elsewhere. Ask a reference librarian at the Information Desk for assistance.

Selected reference sources:

LOCATING BOOKS

The CONSORT catalog can be used to locate books and other materials available in the Kenyon, Denison, Ohio Wesleyan and Wooster libraries. CONSORT also provides access to OhioLINK, which indicates the holdings of 85 libraries throughout Ohio. You may borrow books directly from either CONSORT or OhioLINK. Requested materials typically arrive at Kenyon 3 - 5 working days after the request is made.

The easiest way to start searching for materials in CONSORT is to do a word search. Remember to combine your keywords with appropriate connectors, and search for alternate endings by truncating with an asterisk (*). See examples below:

language* and acquisition
reading or writing

You can then examine the records to see if there are specific subject headings that would lead you to other relevant items in the catalog. See examples of subject headings below:

Examples of useful subject headings:

If you do not find enough materials in CONSORT, you can repeat your search in OhioLINK.

FINDING JOURNAL ARTICLES

Journal articles, some books, essays, etc. can be locating using a variety of indexes. Indexes differ in their selection of journals and other materials, so it is often useful to try several in order to be thorough in your research.

Constructing a Search Statement:

As you begin to search for articles, you'll need to come up with a list of keywords. Background information obtained from reading books and reference sources can be effective sources for these keywords.

When you search for articles in indexes you may need to combine your keywords into one search statement. The following are common connectors:

Connector What it does Example
And Requires all terms to appear. Use to narrow or limit your search. language AND culture
Or Either term may appear. Use to broaden your search or combine synonyms. language OR linguistics
Not Excludes a particular term. Use sparingly to narrow your search. psycholinguistics NOT neurolinguistics

You can use more than one operator to design a complex search statement. If you choose to use both an And and an Or in your search statement you'll need to enclose the terms being "or'd" in parentheses. See example below:

(language or linguistics) and culture

This search will find articles about oracles at Delphi, both singular and plural.

Truncation allows you to search for alternate forms of words. Different indexes and databases use different symbols to accomplish this task. The most common truncation symbols are:

Symbol Index/Database Example
* CONSORT/OhioLINK linguist*
$ Humanities Abstracts linguist$

Relevant indexes:
  • Anthropology Plus
    Anthropology Plus indexes articles from over 1,000 journals and 200 edited works each year in anthropology and related fields. Provides selective coverage from 1983-present. The major focus is on the fields of archaeology, cultural and social anthropology, biological and physical anthropology, and linguistics.
  • ERIC [1966- ]
    The ERIC database is a guide to published and unpublished sources on thousands of educational topics, with information from RIE (Resources in Education) and CIJE (Current Index to Journals in Education).
  • MLA International Bibliography [1963- ]
    Bibliographic citations covering scholarly work in literature, linguistics, and folklore worldwide. Sources include journal and book articles, dissertations, monographs, and series.
  • PsycINFO [1967- ]
    PsycINFO is the primary index of psychological literature, as well as related disciplines such as medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, and other areas. It indexes over 1300 journals, English language books and book chapters, dissertations and technical reports.
  • Sociological Abstracts [1963- ]
    Sociological Abstracts Database is a primary resource for accessing the latest research sponsored in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. The database draws information from an international selection of over 2,600 journals and other serials publications, plus conference papers, books, and dissertations. Records added after 1974 contain in-depth and nonevaluative abstracts of journal articles.

Finding Journals Available at Kenyon

It is important to keep in mind that not every journal or book title indexed will be held in the Kenyon Library. Do a title search in CONSORT to see if it is available at Kenyon. If it is available in print, it will be shelved in either the Current Periodicals section on the main floor of Olin Library or the Bound Periodicals section on the first floor of Chalmers Library.

Getting Articles Not Available at Kenyon

Many journal titles indexed in these resources are not available at Kenyon. You need to place an Inter-Library loan request to get copies of articles from journals not available at Kenyon. Estimated time for an item to arrive is at least 2 weeks.

USING INTERNET RESOURCES

When using Internet resources, it is very important to evaluate the reliability, objectivity, and currency of the information you find. For assistance in doing so, please see the guide to Evaluating Internet Resources.

Selected Linguistics Internet sites:

GETTING RESEARCH HELP

For individual reference assistance, contact:

Karen Greever
Technical Services Librarian
Chalmers Library
(740) 427-5420
greeverk@kenyon.edu
Spring 2005