Linguistics: General Linguistics

Most databases, as well as LibrarySearch and MaineCat, assign subjects to books and articles. A subject is a designated word or phrase that describes an idea or concept and groups all articles or books about that concept together.

• Subjects are also variously called descriptors, controlled vocabulary, headings, or index terms.
• To search by subject you have to know the exact subject term. Most databases that use subjects have a Thesaurus that you can use to look up subject terms. You can also do a keyword search, find a book or article that is relevant to your research, and look at the subject terms assigned to it.
• LibrarySearch and MaineCat use Library of Congress Subject Headings, and each database will have its own list of subject headings, so you will have to look up subjects in each database independently.

There are many ways you can get research materials from other libraries. In the vast majority of cases, there is no charge to you for this service!

• From LibrarySearch, use the GET IT button to request items elsewhere.
• From MaineCat, use the  button in the middle of an item's page.
• From a database:
  • Select the item you want and find and click the 
  • If the library does not have access to the item, find and click the "Submit an Interlibrary Loan Request" link under Step 3 in the right panel.

• Most databases allow for searching with Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT).
  • Use AND to focus your search and combine different aspects of your topic
  • Use OR to broaden your search and find sources that use different words for the same concept.
  • Use NOT to omit certain terms from your results.
• Use an asterisk (*) to truncate words if you want to search for all words with that root. For example, “environment*” would search for environment, environmental, environmentalism, etc.
• Put quotes around a phrase that you want the database to search as a phrase, rather than as individual words.
• Group synonyms inside parentheses using OR between each one

Example: