Introduction
This subject guide highlights some key discipline resources to get you started with study and research.
- Refer to the New Students Library Guide for everything you need to know about Library services and resources.
- Build your researching, reading and writing skills with the Research Essentials Library Guide.
- Streamline your access to online resources with the Library's quick access tools.
Handbooks and reference sources
Reference sources
- Oxford ReferenceOxford Reference is a large reference source database that compiles a wide range of Oxford University Press publications including scholarly encyclopedias, dictionaries and handbooks which are excellent sources of reliable, factual information. Try browsing for "Linguistics".
- Oxford Bibliographies OnlineOxford Bibliographies Online contains high quality reference articles which include comprehensive bibliographies on a wide range of topics that can point to seminal and related works. Try browsing for "Linguistics" for sources and reading lists for all aspects of languages and linguistics.
- The World Atlas of Language Structures Online (WALS)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.
- GlottologComprehensive reference information for the world's languages, especially the lesser known languages.
- PhoibleA repository of cross-linguistic phonological inventory data, which have been extracted from source documents and tertiary databases and compiled into a single searchable convenience sample.
Handbooks and dictionaries
Books
You can access print and eBooks via the Library Catalogue. To find books on a particular subject, try a keyword search:
To improve your searching skills, see the Research Essentials Library Guide. Note that you can search the catalogue in non-Latin scripts (including Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Japanese and Korean).
For information on access and loans, including material from other libraries, see the borrowing from the library page. The eBook Guide provides information on eBook access.
Databases and journals
Use databases to search across many academic resources (including peer-reviewed journals) at the same time.
Refer to the A-Z Ejournals and Databases page for a comprehensive list of available resources.
Core Arts and Humanities databases:
The selection of multidisciplinary databases below will retrieve results from different subject areas.
- Discovery (EBSCO)Use Discovery to look for books, ebooks, journal articles and more. It's a great place to start your search but does not give you everything the Library has.
- Google ScholarGoogle Scholar is one of the most popular ways to find academic sources for study and research. Did you know you can use it to search for journal articles that the University of Melbourne has access to? You can do this through the link above or set up your Google Scholar preferences to include Library content.
- JSTORJSTOR is one of the largest databases the Library has access to. It is a multidisciplinary database so it looks in thousands of journals in over a hundred subjects - many of them related to arts and humanities. Highly recommended as your first or second place to search.
- ProQuest CentralCovering more than 160 subjects areas, ProQuest Central is the largest aggregated database of periodical content. This award-winning online reference resource features a highly-respected, diversified mix of content including scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, books, newspapers, reports and videos.
- Scopus (Elsevier)Scopus is another large, multidisciplinary database. It looks through journals, books, and conference papers. It has some advanced tools that can help you discover new research quickly - the 'times cited' and 'related articles' links are great time-savers. While it doesn't always have full-text PDFs it is still an excellent place to look for your research.
- Web of ScienceWeb of Science is a massive, multidisciplinary database which includes a large amount of humanities and social sciences material from as far back as 1900. Like Scopus it has some advanced features that allows you to quickly link to related research.
Linguistics-specific database
For more focused results, try LLBA or one of the other relevant databases listed below:
- Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts : LLBA (Proquest)This database abstracts and indexes the international literature in linguistics and related disciplines in the language sciences. The database covers all aspects of the study of language including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. Documents indexed include journal articles, book reviews, books, book chapters, dissertations and working papers.
Other databases relevant to Linguistics
- MLA International Bibliography (EBSCOhost)The MLA International Bibliography contains research on the study of language, literature, linguistics, rhetoric and composition, folklore and film, covering scholarly publications from the early 20th century to the present. It includes citations to content published in journals, books, series, translations, scholarly editions, websites and dissertations. The database also includes the MLA Directory of Periodicals and the MLA Thesaurus.
- Anthropology Online (Alexander Street Press)Brings together a wide range of streaming video, written ethnographies, field notes, seminal texts, memoirs, and contemporary studies, covering politics, economics, history, psychology, environmental studies, religion, area studies, linguistics, and geography, the database will contain more than 1,800 documentary films and over 100,000 pages of full-text material at completion, including tens of thousands of pages of previously unpublished material from major archives.
- Humanities Index (ProQuest)This database is an international abstracting and indexing tool for research in the humanities. BHI indexes almost 400 internationally respected humanities journals and weekly magazines published in the UK and other English speaking countries, as well as quality newspapers published in the UK.
Theses
Websites
You can find relevant information and resources for your research on the websites of professional organisations and bodies, institutes, NGOs, government departments, etc.
This guide gives a few suggestions to get you started and to give you an idea what to look for. It is by no means comprehensive. If you are a coursework student, check your LMS to see if your lecturer has provided website recommendations.
Tip: if you want to limit your Google search results to organisational, governmental, or educational websites, use Google's advanced search option to limit the site or domains to .org, .gov, .edu.
Selected Linguistics websites
- WordNetA lexical database for English.
- Linguistics Resources on the InternetProduced by SIL International.
- SIL InternationalSIL serves language communities worldwide, building their capacity for sustainable language development, by means of research, translation, training and materials development. Please note, be critical with your use of this resource as, while not-for-profit, SIL is a faith-based organisation.
Referencing and citing
Contact us
Ask a question on Library Chat
