Linguistics Subject Guide
Library Catalogue | Books | Journals | Databases
Library Catalogue
Use the Library Catalogue to find books, journals and other material that you need, as this is much quicker and more accurate than just browsing the shelves. There are a number of dedicated catalogue terminals situated throughout the Library, and the catalogue is also freely available from the Library's website.
For help in searching and using the Catalogue, read the following guides:
- Using the Library Catalogue No. 1 Quick Guide
- Using the Library Catalogue No. 2 Advanced Features
- Using the Library Catalogue No. 3 My Library Card
Finding Books
The main Linguistics collection is shelved at classmark W and is located in the Green Zone of C Floor of the Library.
You will also find useful material within other subject areas such as Psychology (classmark I), Education (classmark J), Literacy (classmarks JKA-JKD), and Sociology (classmark K) all on B Floor Blue Zone.
Some useful classmarks include:
| Language Teaching | W82-W87 |
| Language in General | W |
| General and Theoretical Linguistics | WAB |
| Dictionaries of Linguistic Terms | WAB1 |
| Contrastive Linguistics | WAC |
| Historical Linguistics | WAH |
| Psycholinguistics | WAI |
| First Language Acquisition | WAJ |
| Sociolinguistics | WAK |
| Discourse Analysis | WAKD |
| Language and Gender | WAKG |
| Phonetics and Phonology | WB |
| Written language, scripts and alphabets | WC |
| Syntax and Morphology | WD |
| Semantics | WES |
| Pragmatics | WEX |
| Non Indo-European Languages | WJ-WV |
| English Language Teaching: general books | YA8 |
| English Language Teaching: books about specific aspects e.g. course design | YA80 |
| English Language Teaching in specific countries | YA83 |
| English Language Teaching: textbooks and classroom materials | YA86 |
Finding Journals
Journals are published regularly and are important because they provide up to date and often specialised information within a subject area. Use the catalogue to find which titles can be accessed at Lancaster and whether they are available electronically, in print, or both.
Electronic journals:
Many journals are now available electronically, and all of the Library's electronic journals can be found via the Library Catalogue, and via the Library's search portal MetaLib. Both of these services can be accessed from the Library website.
For more information about accessing electronic journals, see the guide to Finding and Using Electronic Journals.
Printed journals:
The Library also has a large number of print journals for Linguistics, most of which are at W6 on C Floor Blue Zone. Journals concerned with English Language Teaching can be found at Y6 and YA6 on C Floor Blue Zone.
However, the most recent copies of all print journals are shelved in the Current Journals area on A floor of the Library, in the Yellow Zone.
See the Finding Books and Journals in the Library guide for more information.
Finding Databases
Databases enable you to find further information for your research or assignment, such as journal articles, conference papers, newspaper reports, research reports etc.
Recommended databases:
- ABELL - Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature - Listing of books and articles published since 1920 in all areas of English
- Academic Search Complete - Full-text articles from over 5,300 journals
- ERIC - Listing of American articles on language teaching since 1965
- JSTOR - An archive of important scholarly full-text journals, with coverage often from the first volume published up to the last five years
- Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts - Listing of books and articles from 1973
- MLA Bibliography - Listing of books and articles from 1963
- MyiLibrary and NetLibrary - Over 6,500 electronic books
- Oxford English Dictionary - Guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, both present and past, over the last millennium
- Oxford Reference Online - Resource of dictionaries, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press
- Project Muse - Full-text access to over 100 journals in the arts, humanities and social sciences
- ScienceDirect - Full text journals from Elsevier
- Web of Science (All subjects) - Collectively indexes over 8,500 high quality, peer-reviewed journals, providing complete bibliographic data, full-length author abstracts, and cited references to influential research. Includes the Arts & Humanities Citation Index, and the Social Sciences Citation Index
All of these databases are available via the Subject Search or Find Database options in the MetaLib search portal from the Library's home page.
Find and search key databases for Linguistics
Off-campus?
If you are not on campus you can still access Lancaster's databases and electronic journals. Please read our guide Using Electronic Resources from Off Campus.
If you need help using or accessing any of the Library's electronic resources, please contact the Subject Librarian for Linguistics: Louise Tripp.