Resource in Focus: Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA)

Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA) indexes and provides abstracts of journal articles, books, book chapters and dissertations on linguistics and language sciences including topics such as:

  • Anthropological linguistics
  • Applied linguistics
  • Descriptive linguistics
  • Discourse analysis
  • Language – pathological and normal
  • Learning disabilities
  • Nonverbal communication
  • Phonetics
  • Phonology
  • Psycholinguistics

It’s an excellent resource for those interested in the nature and use of language.

Screen shot of the LLBA search box.

The database provides both basic and advanced search options and you can limit your results by information (source) type, publication date, subject, language and more.  You can also limit to peer reviewed items only.  While some full text items are available, LLBA item records generally provide only bibliographic information and an abstract, so look out for the ‘Find@Newcastle’ button in your results page, which will help you check for a full text copy of an item in Library Search.

LLBA has the advantage of including a specialised linguistics thesaurus, which you can use in advanced search to refine and focus your search. The thesaurus provides a searchable list of all the subject terms used in the database and highlights links between broader, narrower and related terms, helping you to select all of the keywords relevant to your topic.

Screen shot showing the LLBA thesaurus and advanced search screen.

ProQuest provide a helpful and detailed guide to LLBA which includes search tips for basic and advanced search as well as some sample searches you can work through to familiarise yourself with the database. 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *