Introduction to Areas of Study (HC)

Festival in Nebaj, Guatemala  (Wikimedia Commons, public domain)

The companion and handbook genre is a publication type that has flourished in the last decade.  The goal is for leading scholars to provide a thorough description of the subject matter of a field while also giving the most current interpretations of key questions.  Each essay in a companion reflects an important subject facet and identifies the books and articles which are crucial for a greater understanding.   Companions for Linguistics include:                                                                                                                                                          

Literature reviews are a particularly useful resource when doing research.  They address the issues involved in a particular question and the debates among scholars.  They map out the intellectual terrain succinctly and give you the major landmarks in terms of key authors and significant titles for greater understanding.  It is one of the best places to find discussion of issues that are unresolved or in contention.

Subject librarians make research guides for individual classes and for topics.  Browse for information on different subjects.  See this introduction to research guides video for more information.  Research guides for courses in Linguistics include:

          LING/CMSC 209 Morphological Reinflection

          LING 282: Structure of Chinese

          SPAN 314/LING 214: Spanish in the US: Language, Identity, and Politics