Linguistics Library Resources Cheat Sheet: Home
What's in this guide
This guide suggests some basic sources for finding linguistics literature and data. Your research project is unique. Please get in touch if you'd like to tackle your literature review or brainstorm your project together!
Before you start
- Interlibrary LoanInterlibrary loan and document delivery system: request anything you can't access, there is no limit to number of requests and no direct cost to you.
- Open Access ButtonBrowser extension that searches for open access versions of articles you may find behind pay walls.
- UnpaywallBrowser extension that searches for open access versions of articles you may find behind pay walls.
Bibliographies
- Oxford Bibliographies: LinguisticsIdentifying foundational readings can be challenging. Oxford Bibliographies offers annotated reading lists on over 300 topics in linguistics, from Acceptability judgements to Zapotecan languages.
Finding research articles
Not all sources below will lead to full text content. You can request any articles via Library document delivery -- it's free to you and typically has a 48-hour turn-around.
1. Library databases (Library pays for these)
Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA)
Indexes over 1,500 linguistics and languages studies journals as well as books and dissertations. Some full text. ProQuest product.
Linguistics Database
Indexed over 280 journals (with some overlap with LLBA), but the difference is also that most titles are full text. ProQuest product, via NC Live.
PsychInfo
Not specific to linguistics, but indexes many relevant journals. EBSCO product.
Communication and Mass Media Complete
Not specific to linguistics, but indexes many relevant journals. EBSCO product.
Scopus
Not specific to linguistics, but indexes many relevant journals. Elsevier product.
JSTOR
Repository of academic journal content.
ProjectMuse
Repository of academic journal content, primarily in the humanities.
Articles+
Attempts to search across a large number of library databases. ProQuest product ("Summon").
2. Aggregators (Library pays for some of this content)
GoogleScholar
Self explanatory, but link it to the Library when off campus for full-text access.
CORE
Aggregator of open access research papers from institutional repositories around the world.
Semantic Scholar
Open and free aggregator. Allen Institute for AI product.
exaly
Non-profit aggregator of scholarly literature and scientometric data.
Dimensions
Linked data-based aggregator. Digital Science product.
Aminer
Search and mining service for researcher social networks. Tsinghua University product.
3. The "Big 5" (Library pays for most of this content)
Five publishers have bought up a large portion of academic journals. One benefit is that you can search across journals on their websites.
Elsevier
Taylor & Francis
Sage
Wiley
Springer
4. Article/preprint and data community repositories
LingBuzz
SemanticsArchive
TROLLing
Wow, that's a lot of places to check! Do I really have to search each of these? Not necessarily! It depends on your project. There is considerable overlap between some of these resources. If your task is to find a couple scholarly articles, LLBA and one of the aggregators will do the trick. If you are doing a comprehensive literature review, you may want to search several or all of these as due diligence.
Finding books and book-like materials
- Library CatalogDiscover books, journals, films, primary source collections, government documents, and other materials held at UNC and in the Triangle (you can request materials from Duke, NC State and NC Central) as well as a variety of open access publications.
- WorldCatJoint catalog of materials held at North American and some European National Libraries.
WorldCat has a subscription version FirstSearch, with more robust advanced search options, but a less modern interface. You can request most titles that UNC does not have through Interlibrary Loan.
Books will also show up in some of the databases and aggregators above.
Finding dissertations and theses
- Carolina Digital Repository Linguistics ThesesTheses and dissertations defended at UNC-Chapel Hill.
- COREOpen Access aggregator focusing on academic institutional repositories. Add documentType:"thesis" to search or select "Thesis" under "Type".
- Networked Digital Library of Theses and DissertationsDissertation and thesis aggregator pulling from dissertation repositories including DART-Europe E-theses Portal, EThOS e-theses online service (British Library), Theses Canada and others.
- ProQuest Dissertations & Theses GlobalIndexes US dissertations from 1861 with full text available from 1997; masters theses covered selectively including some full text. Citations for dissertations from 1980 include 350-word abstracts, while masters' theses from 1988 have 150-word abstracts. Selectively covers dissertations from Great Britain and other European universities for recent years.
In addition to this database, the full text of the majority of UNC theses and dissertations from 2006, and all beginning in 2008, are freely available electronically from the UNC Library: Dissertations | Theses - Open Access Theses and DissertationsSearch engine and access tool to millions of graduate theses and dissertations published around the world.
Reference resources on the World's Languages
Glottolog
Glottolog provides a comprehensive catalogue of the world's languages, language families and dialects. The References section provides a comprehensive collection of bibliographical data for the world's lesser known languages.
This is where I look to see if a grammar or any kind of description of a particular language exists.
OLAC Language Resource Catalog
Catalog of world's languages with details about text collections, audio recordings, dictionaries, and software, sourced from dozens of digital and traditional archives. Overlaps with, but also complements Glottolog.
WALS (World Atlas of Language Structures Online)
WALS is a large database of structural (phonological, grammatical, lexical) properties of languages gathered from descriptive materials (such as reference grammars) by a team of 55 authors and edited by Matthew S. Dryer and Martin Haspelmath. The Library also has 2005 print version.
The Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures (APiCS)
APiCS provides expert-based information on 130 grammatical and lexical features of 76 pidgin and creole languages from around the world. It was edited by Susanne Maria Michaelis, Philippe Maurer, Martin Haspelmath, and Magnus Huber. The Library has the 2013 print version and the accompanying Survey of Pidgin and Creole Languages.
Linguistic Corpora Available through University Libraries
University Libraries has purchased data files for the following corpora, compiled by Mark Davies (formerly known as BYU Corpora). Each corpus also comes with a limited-functionality public interface appropriate for small-scale projects, class demos, and casual browsing. The files come in three formats: database, word/lemma/Pos, and linear text. Onyen authentication is required for download.
Corpus del Español
Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA)
- Public interface and information about COCA
- COCA files download (560 million words, 1990-2017)
Corpus of Historical American English (COHA)
- Public interface and information about COHA
- COHA files download (400 million words, 1810-2009)
The Movie Corpus
News on the Web Corpus (NOW)
Corpus of American Soap Operas (SOAP Corpus)
TV Corpus
Wikipedia Corpus
Corpus of Global Web-Based English (GloWbE)
iWeb Corpus
A note on the Linguistics Data Consortium
In 2017-2018, University Libraries attempted to get campus-wide access to the Linguistics Data Consortium catalog. However, the year-long license negotiations have failed, so unfortunately, we will not be able to provide you access to this data. If you need LDC datasets, please contact your department. Departments may be able to procure specific datasets for limited use, since they do not need to provide access for the entire campus the way the Library does.
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