Reference resources help you choose, explore and develop your topic! Reference sources such as encyclopedias and dictionaries contain overviews and background information. They sometimes contain statistics, definitions and lists of resources for further study. When you have a better understanding of your topic, it will be easier to come up with the search terms you'll use to find the books and articles you need.
Wikipedia is a reference source because it is an encyclopedia. You can use it to discover ideas and links to additional resources -- but never cite it as a source in your papers! This rule exists because Wikipedia entries can be edited at any time, by anyone, and so its accuracy can never be relied upon at any given moment.
The Oxford Dictionary of Word Histories
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Describes the origins and sense development of thousands of core words of the English language. Additional word histories outside this core group are included for words with a particularly interesting story to tell and links between words are given where these enhance the picture. A key feature of the book is the inclusion of a large number of well-known idioms with dates of original use with details of how and when they came about.
The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins
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An alphabetically arranged reference contains the definitions and origins of more than 15,000 words and expressions, including slang words, proverbs, nicknames, and phrases from literature.
The Oxford Companion to the English Language
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Thirty-five hundred entries offer information of writing and speech, linguistics, rhetoric, literary terms, and related topics. Contains a chronology of English and Roman times to 1990, and an index of people who appear in entries, and biographies of influential figures such as Noah Webster and Noam Chomsky.
Key Ideas in Linguistics and the Philosophy of Language
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This book offers introductory entries on 80 ideas that have shaped the study of language up to the present day. Entries are written by experts in the fields of linguistics and the philosophy of language to reflect the full range of approaches and modes of thought. Each entry includes a brief description of the idea, an account of its development, and its impact on the field of language study. The book is written in an accessible style with clear descriptions of technical terms, guides to further reading, and extensive cross-referencing between entries. A useful additional feature of this book is that it is cross-referenced throughout with Key Thinkers in Linguistics and the Philosophy of Language (Edinburgh, 2005), revealing significant connections and continuities in the two related disciplines. Ideas covered range from Sense Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Logic, through Generative Semantics, Cognitivism, and Conversation Analysis, to Political Correctness, Deconstruction, and Corpora.
Dictionary of Languages : the Definitive Reference to More Than 400 Languages
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Check the index to look up a country and its languages. Each entry gives a history of the language.
Language and Communication : a Cross-cultural Encyclopedia
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People have been fascinated with fundamental questions about language and communication for thousands of years. How did human language originate? Why are there so many different languages? Are features of language and communication arbitrary or do fundamental universal patterns prevail? By introducing readers to these kinds of questions, this reference presents a complete and detailed picture of how Western and non-Western traditions influence one another.
Facts About the World's Languages
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Provides linguistic descriptions of a selected assortment of languages from renowned scholars, as well as historical and cultural information for each language.
International Encyclopedia of Linguistics
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The Encyclopedia encompasses the full range of topics in linguistics, including such areas as historical, comparative, formal, mathematical, functional, philosophical, and sociolinguistics. Special attention is given to interrelations within these branches of the field and to relations of linguistics with other disciplines. This interdisciplinary focus makes the encyclopedia an invaluable resource not only for linguistics but also for scholars working in the fields of computer science, mathematics, philosophy, the social and behavioral sciences, and literary studies.
The Routledge Linguistics Encyclopedia
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An encyclopedia that covers major and subsidiary areas of linguistics and applied linguistics. It contains entries on: Attitudes to language, Conversation analysis, English language teaching, Gesture and language, Idioms Language and advertising, Language and new technologies, and Linguistics in schools.
The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English
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The American Heritage Guide to Contemporary Usage and Style
