Library Policy Statements

I. PROGRAM INFORMATION

The Department of Linguistics offers a BA degree through the Liberal Studies Program, and also the MA (Plan A, thesis, Plan B, non-thesis, and Plan C, examination options) and PhD degrees. The faculty represent a variety of theoretical viewpoints with various faculty members especially well qualified to direct research on languages of the Pacific and parts of Asia and the Americas. Fields of special competence include descriptive and comparative linguistics, general linguistic theory, language contact and variation, ethnolinguistics, language development, and language data processing. In addition, the department faculty and faculty in cooperating departments such as Asian Languages and Literature, English, English as a Second Language, European Languages and Literature, and Indo-Pacific Languages supervise work in applied linguistics.

Research may include studies of language use in education, law, or other institutions of society; social and cultural influences on language acquisition and use; bilingualism, multilingualism, foreign accent, translation; and the interrelations of language and literacy.

The department supports Working Papers of Linguistics, and edits Oceanic Linguistics, both internationally distributed.

II. COORDINATION OF COLLECTING RESPONSIBILITIES

Linguistics materials in Asian, Slavic or Pacific languages are funded by the respective area collections. Materials in the areas of language disorders, neurology, artificial intelligence, linguistic data processing, mathematical linguistics, and electronic data processing are obtained on the approval plans and housed in the Science and Technology unit.

The Tsuzaki/Reinecke Creole Collection, housed in Special Collections, is a catalogued collection of materials of special interest to pidgin/creole scholars as well as to sociolinguists and ethnolinguists.

III. GUIDELINES TO MATERIALS COLLECTED OR EXCLUDED

Language:

Besides English, the collection includes materials in French, German, Russian, Spanish, pidgins/creoles and Asian and Pacific languages. Slavic, Asian and Pacific materials are funded and housed in the area collections. Selective subject coverage on extinct languages, Finno-Ugarian, Egyptian, Semitic, African, and Amerindian languages. Of the Amerindian languages, more coverage is given to the Salish languages.

Chronological:

No limitations.

Geographic:

Major coverage of Asia and the Pacific with representative coverage of other countries; selective coverage of English language as used worldwide.

Date of Publication:

No limitations.

Types/Formats of Materials Collected:

Books and journals in the major fields and sub-fields; representative linguistic atlases, maps, grammars, dictionaries, etymological studies, and general comparative studies with more comprehensive collecting given to language areas of local faculty expertise; reports of research in progress including working papers of major linguistic institutes and research centers; proceedings and congresses of linguistic societies; selected festschriften and collected works of well-known scholars in the field. Dissertations are acquired selectively, generally on microfilm. Selected textbooks and reference texts of value are selected. Materials in electronic formats such as online resources and CD-ROMs are acquired.

Treatment:

Theoretical and historical studies and works on methodology; grammatical studies from various schools of linguistics; selective biographies of linguists and major collections of their works; upper level books on general linguistics.

Date compiled: 7/01 Compiler: Ross Christensen