When conducting academic research, you should try to find as much information about previous research on your topic, as possible.
One of the best places to look for articles is on the Library’s Databases tab. Databases range from general to subject-specific, can be used from off campus, and many offer full-text access to articles.
If your topic covers more than one subject (Social Sciences and Education, etc.) you'll want to search more than one database to get the full picture.
Visit our main Databases page, for a full list of resources available to you!
The following databases are good starting points for research in linguistic anthropology. The contents of each are different (with some overlap) so it's always a good idea to check in multiple databases to ensure that you find all relevant information.
To make effective use of the eHRAF World Cultures database, it is strongly recommended that you download and review the Outline of Cultural Materials (OCM), the subject tagging system used to label every paragraph in the database. By making use of the subject terms/codes in the OCM, you can get high-precision results from your searches. For example, a search on the subject Language (using its numerical code 190) in combination with the subject Interpersonal Relations (using its numerical code 570) yields many results for over 260 different cultures around the world. From the result screen, you can drill down to individual documents detailing how language is used in interpersonal relationships in specific cultures.
The Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts database contains citations to a substantial amount of published research in the field of linguistic anthropology. Using appropriate search terms, you can find articles covering such topics as the language culture relationship, sociolinguistics, bilingualism, politics, cultural identity, cultural differences, language ideologies, language policy, interpersonal communication, gender, families and family life, the social functions of language, and more.
The Communication & Mass Media Complete database includes citations and abstracts for over 800 articles in anthropological linguistics published in academic journals.
The Academic Search Complete database includes citations and abstracts for over 800 articles in anthropological linguistics published in academic journals.
When conducting research, you will usually be asked to find Scholarly Articles, or artices from a Scholarly Journal, rather than popular sources (like magazines and newspapers).
Not sure what the difference is between scholarly and popular? Check out this short tutorial: Scholarly v. Popular
How can you tell if you've found a scholarly article?
Some of our databases allow you to limit your results to Scholarly or Peer-Reviewed (possibly Refereed) articles. In some cases, this isn’t so clear. You can either check with your professor or a librarian, or you can search for the journal name in Ulrichsweb (from on campus).