Library Research Guides: LING 238: Sociolinguistics: Overviews & Context

Why Use Reference Works?

Reference works such as specialized encyclopedias, dictionaries, and handbooks can provide

a concise overview of a topic, often written by scholars in the field	definitions of key terms & concepts
suggestions for further sources	vocabulary (keywords) for database searching

Reference Works Databases

Oxford Bibliographies Online This link opens in a new window
Combining features of an annotated bibliography and a scholarly encyclopedia, this resource directs researchers to top scholarship across a wide variety of topics. To do a search within the Linguistics content, go to the Advanced Search, enter your search terms, and check the box for Linguistics under "Show Results From."
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Hundreds of full-text academic encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other sources for introductions to topics, definitions, or factual information. Includes subject-specific titles from art, literature, education, science, religion, history and more.
Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window
Over 400 full-text academic encyclopedias, language dictionaries, books of quotations, and other sources. Includes subject-specific titles from art, classics, history, law, linguistics, literature, media studies, medicine, performing arts, philosophy, religion, science and technology, politics, and more.
Sage Knowledge This link opens in a new window
Search across more than 100 full text encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference works in the social and behavioral sciences.

Encyclopedia Articles & More
This is a subset of SuperSearch that searches several reference databases at once.

Individual Dictionaries & Encyclopedias

Dictionary of Varieties of English by Raymond Hickey
Publication Date: 2014
The Handbook of Language Variation and Change [e-book]
Publication Date: 2013
Presents views of linguistic variation in the diverse contexts that give it meaning and significance, across generations, social strata, and domains of interaction.
The Atlas of North American English by William Labov; Sharon Ash; Charles Boberg
Publication Date: 2005
The Cambridge Handbook of Sociolinguistics [e-book]
Publication Date: 2011
Surveys a range of topics and approaches in the study of language variation and use in society. Includes insights from anthropology, social psychology, the study of discourse and power, conversation analysis, theories of style and styling, language contact and applied sociolinguistics.
The Handbook of Historical Sociolinguistics
Publication Date: 2012
Explores the nature of language change and diffusion. Organized thematically into sections exploring origins and theoretical assumptions; methods for the sociolinguistic study of the history of languages; linguistic and extra-linguistic variables; historical dialectology, language contact and diffusion; and attitudes to language.
The International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction [e-book]
Publication Date: 2015
"Language and social interaction (LSI) is an area of communication that studies how features of talk and text accomplish functions in social life such as basic processes of meaning-making; community and individual identity construction; and the privileging or disadvantaging of categories of people, kinds of actions, and organizational arrangements." -from the Editor's Introduction.
The Routledge Handbook of Sociolinguistics Around the World
Publication Date: 2009
Divided into sections covering the Americas, Asia, Australasia, Africa and the Middle East, and Europe. Explains the patterns and systematicity that underlie language variation in use, as well as the ways in which alternations between different language varieties mark personal style, social power and national identity.
A Dictionary of Sociolinguistics [e-book]
Publication Date: 2004
New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Language [e-book]
Publication Date: 2007
Includes entries on African American English, Afro-Seminole Creole, African American Discourse Features, African American Naming Patterns, and other topics.

Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) This link opens in a new window
Regional words, phrases, and pronunciations as they vary across the United States, including definitions, etymologies, and usage. Features clips from over 4,000 audio recordings of interviews carried out in all 50 states as part of the DARE Survey between 1965 and 1970. Browse by region with an interactive map and create your own maps using the DARE survey data.

Introductions & Overviews

What Is Sociolinguistics? [e-book] by Gerard Van Herk
Publication Date: 2018
The Mouton World Atlas of Variation in English [e-book]
Publication Date: 2012
Presents grammatical variation in spontaneous spoken English, mapping 235 features in 48 varieties of English and 26 English-based Pidgins and Creoles in eight Anglophone world regions. Provides perspectives on the data sets in the open-access Electronic World Atlas of Varieties of English as well as large-scale comparisons and synopses.
African American English: A Linguistic Introduction [e-book] by Lisa J. Green
This textbook describes patterns in the sentence structure, sound system, word formation and word use in AAE, and examines topics such as education, speech events in the secular and religious world, and the use of language in literature and the media to create black images. (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2002)
English in the Southern United States [e-book]
Cambridge University Press, 2003

Bibliographies

African American, Creole, and Other Vernacular Englishes in Education: A Bibliographic Resources by John R. Rickford et al.
Publication Date: 2012
A comprehensive bibliography of publications from the past half century (pre-2012) that deal with the role of vernacular language varieties in the classroom.

General Linguistics Reference Works

Handbook of Linguistics (e-book)
A comprehensive introduction to the field of linguistics. Chapter 13 focuses on Syntax. (2017)
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language
Call Number: Clapp Reference P29 .C64 2010
(2010)
The World Atlas of Language Structures
Call Number: Clapp Ref P143 .W67 2005
Also available as an open-access website.