Special Tools for Studying Language-Related Issues
A source of annotated reading lists for all sorts of topics, including those you may be talking about in class:
OED (The Oxford English Dictionary)
As a historical dictionary, the OED is very different from dictionaries of current English, in which the focus is on present-day meanings. In the OED, but you’ll also find the history of individual words, when they first appear in print, when their meanings changed over time, all the meanings they've had over time, and when, sometimes, they went out of use altogether.
The OED also has a whole set of resources on World Englishes -- localized or indigenized varieties of English spoken throughout the world by people of diverse cultural backgrounds in a wide range of sociolinguistic contexts. And word nerds should check out the Word Lists page.
The Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE)
Widely viewed as the American cousin to the the OED, DARE is also different the typical dictionary you're used to using. It does not include words that are commonly used throughout the United States, focusing instead on the regional aspects of language, and documenting words, phrases, and pronunciations that vary from one place to another.
According to some estimates, a language disappears every 40 days. For some, this is called linguistic genocide; for others, linguicide; and more neutrally, language death. Read more: https://www.endangeredlanguages.com/about_importance/
Find an English-language version of your source
When you can't find an exact English-language translation of a source, try searching for an English-language alternative:
Search for other works by the same author
- Example: Samoyault, Tiphaine. Traduction et violence. Seuil, 2020.
- Set up a new search in HOLLIS Catalog & Articles for author contains samoyault tiphaine AND language is English.
- Some of your results will have non-English titles - if you've set the language filter to "English," that means at least part of the book or article is in English.
Search for other works on the same subject
- Example: Selçuk, Sami. Önce dil. 1. baskı., Truva, 2009.
- Note the "subjects" in the HOLLIS record:
- Turkish language -- Reform
- Turkish language -- History
- Use those subjects to construct a new search, and add a language filter
- Note the "subjects" in the HOLLIS record:
Follow the citation trails
- Example: Bastin, Georges. “Por una historia de la traducción en Hispanoamérica.”
- Copy and paste the citation into Google Scholar
- Follow the "cited by" link to get a list of articles that cite your source
- Use "Search within citing articles" (checkbox under the search box) to focus the list to a specific topic
