Research Guides
Linguistics: Articles
Reference sources for language and linguistics
Finding scholarly articles in linguistics
The main database used in the discipline of linguistics is Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA). Other databases dedicated to linguistics are the Modern Language Association International Bibliography (MLAIB), which also covers literature and folklore, and Bibliography of Linguistic Literature (BLL), a German database notable for its coverage of festschrifts and European languages. Other databases that may overlap with linguistics or its sub-disciplines are also listed here.
Linguistics databases
- Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts This link opens in a new window
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Indexing and abstracting of scholarly journals in all fields of linguistics; coverage 1973+ - MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
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The most comprehensive source for scholarship in literature, language, linguistics, and folklore. Covers language corpora, cognitive linguistics, the diachronic approach, translation, style, narrative, etc.
- ACL AnthologyOpen digital repository of research papers in computational linguistics from the Association for Computational Linguistics. Provides free access to over 70,000 conference and workshop papers on computational linguistics and natural language processing.
Databases for disciplines related to linguistics
- Bibliography of Asian Studies This link opens in a new window
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English language publications on humanities, social studies, and other topics related to East, Southeast, and South Asia, including language. - Bibliography of Indigenous Peoples in North America This link opens in a new window
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Covers all aspects of North America's aboriginal culture, history and life, including language. Index to books, journals and government documents; includes some links to full-text. - Communication Source This link opens in a new window
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Scholarly articles in communication and mass media. Broad coverage includes language education and acquisition, speech, semantics, sociolinguistics, language development, language policy, etc. - ERIC (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
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Education literature with a focus on U.S education. Covers second-language learning, language instruction and assessment, bilingualism, literacy, speech communication, and more. - Google Scholar This link opens in a new windowScholarly literature across many disciplines and sources, including theses, books, abstracts and articles.
See help for accessing articles from off-campus through Google Scholar. - PsycInfo This link opens in a new window
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Academic, research, and practice literature in psychology and related disciplines, 1872 to present. Indexes literature on psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, cognition, etc. - Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
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International literature for the field of sociology. Find sources on language usage, sociolinguistics, culture and identity, language policy and politics, discourse, language contact, etc.
Tips for Finding Linguistics Articles
Find articles about a language: Use alternate names or spellings for the language; also consider the prominence of particular dialects (e.g. Brazilian Portuguese; Mandarin; Lushootseed vs. Coast Salish; etc.). Languages less prominent in the literature may not have stand-alone articles written about them, but may be treated in articles about a particular language family or geographical region.
Find articles by a linguist: When searching the linguist's name, select "author" (or equivalent) from the drop-down menu. Tip: For contemporary linguists, professional/academic CVs containing lists of all or selected publications can often be found by doing a web search containing the linguist's name and the term CV or curriculum vitae.
Find articles about a linguist: When searching the linguist's name, select "subject" (or equivalent) from the drop-down menu.
Find a review of a linguist's book: Many databases have an option to filter by document type that has "book review" as an option. Select this option and then search by the title of the book and/or the name of the linguist.