Library Research Guide for
French Literature 109: Introduction to Semiotics

http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/frlit109c.html

Research Strategy

Background Sources

Cornell Library Catalog

Periodical Indexes

Semiotics on the Internet

Evaluating What You Find

Citing Sources

Research Help

Writing Help Online

RESEARCH STRATEGY

FINDING BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Find encyclopedias and dictionaries on your topic; use Reference Universe.

Reference Universe is a database you can search to find subject encyclopedias on any topic. Be sure to click the "Restrict Search to Titles in your Library" checkbox to limit your search to titles that we own. Click on the open book icon to get the Cornell call number and location. Amaze your friends with your erudition.

The materials listed below are a selection of reference resources for finding background information and context for topics you will be covering in this class. Note the call numbers and library locations for these materials and check the reference collections for additional sources of background information.

The authors of articles in reference books often provide bibliographies of selected books and articles for further study.

Guides, Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

  • Bouissac, Paul, ed. Encyclopedia of Semiotics. New York: Oxford UP, 1998.
    (Olin Ref P 99 .E64x 1998)

    Written in a language free of the jargon that often afflicts books on semiotics. "The three hundred articles forming this work cover a wide range of topics and present a balanced view of the various theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of signs, communication, and culture that have been produced throughout the twentieth century." [Preface]

  • Chandler, Daniel. Semiotics for Beginners. 1994- . [Web site: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/semiotic.html. Accessed 29 October 2003.]

    "The main text is periodically updated (sometimes intensively). The online text is now available in English in the frozen form of print. The online version has special advantages: notably, for the writer revisability, for the reader, being able to search the text and for both, the connections made possible by hypertextual links. However, the main problem for the reader (other than the discomfort of extended reading from the screen) may be that it doesn't stand still long enough to get to know it - one can know one's way around a book precisely because it remains as constant as a map (unlike the terrain it depicts). The book version has now been published by Routledge under the title: Semiotics: The Basics. The online text will continue to be available." [Preface]

  • Dansei, Marcel. Encyclopedic Dictionary of Semiotics, Media, and Communications. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 2000.
    (Uris Ref P 99 .D36 2000)

    "The basis of each entry is a simple definition, which often includes the term's origin and important cross-references. Illustrations [verbal, not visual illustrations] are provided where necessary, along with historical sketches of movements or schools of thought." [Preface]

  • Ducrot, Oswald and Tzvetan Todorov. Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Sciences of Language. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1979.
    (Olin Ref P 29 .D84 1979)

    Originally published in French (1972), this English translation by Catherine Porter brings an excellent linguistics dictionary into the reach of the English-speaking student. Treated here are linguistics and language learning (e.g., Neo-grammarians, Saussurians, etc.); fields of linguistics (e.g. psycholinguistics, rhetoric and stylistics, etc.); methodological concepts (e.g., sign, language, and an appendix describing new concepts of linguistics and especially of semiotics. An "Index of Terms Defined" enhances its use as a dictionary.

  • Encyclopedia of Communication and Information. Edited by Jorge Reina Schement. New York: Macmillan Reference, 2002. 3 volumes.
    (Uris Reference P 87.5 .E53x 2002; also Mann Reference)

    A highly accessible, current subject encyclopedia on communications and the media. The following set of articles gives a example of the range and coverage: "Schramm, Wilbur," "Semiotics," "Sesame Street," Sex and the Media," "Soap Operas," Social Change and the Media," "Social Cognitive Theory and Media Effects," "Social Goals and the Media," "Society and the Media," "Sociolinguistics," "Sports and Media Effects," "Standards and Information," and "Storytellers." Substantial bibliographies.

  • Encyclopedia of Postmodernism. Edited by Victor E. Taylor and Charles E. Winquist. New York: Routledge, 2001.
    (Uris Reference B 831.2 .E63x 2001)

    While postmodernism is a diffuse term encompassing a wide variety of toics and subjects, semiotics is one of the key areas of postmodernist thought. This title is a handy source of information about postmodernist thought and terminology.

  • Encyclopedia of Sociology. Edgar F. Borgatta, editor. 2nd ed. New York : Macmillan, 2000. 5 volumes.
    Also in print at: Olin Reference HM 17 .E56 2000 +

    Academic sociologists provide background articles with references on 370 major topics and themes.

  • Findlay, Michael Shaw. Language and Communication: A Cross-Cultural Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1998.
    (Uris Reference P 29 .F47x 1998)

    "For those who have ever wondered how the human language originated or why there so many different languages, this volume will be of use. It introduces readers to the questions that linguists, anthropologists, and intercultural communication specialists have raised when trying to describe and understand languages and communication from a cross-cultural perspective. The author explores how western and non-western traditions influence one another, and how sociocultural rules govern the use of language. The entries in this volume examine how people from different cultural backgrounds rely on traditional and emerging cultural rules for social interaction."
    -- Vera Gao, ARBA 1999.

  • Grove Dictionary of Art / Dictionary of Art. Edited by Jane Turner. 34 volumes. New York: Grove's Dictionaries, 1999 - .
    (a href="http://resolver.library.cornell.edu/net/fd">Library Gateway/Find it!/Databases; Olin Ref and Fine Arts Ref N 31 .D55 1996)

    An encyclopedia of 41,000 articles covering art and artists worldwide. It is a "comprehensive art reference work covering all forms of the visual arts: painting, sculpture, architecture, graphic and decorative arts, and photography, from prehistory to the 1990s." Available as a networked resource and in print.

  • International Encyclopedia of Communications. 4 vols. New York: Oxford UP, 1989.
    (Uris Ref P 87.5 .I61; also Mann Ref)

    This four-volume set contains articles on all aspects of communication. Articles are arranged alphabetically, many have references to other articles, and all have bibliographies. A valuable, detailed, and scholarly work.

  • Martin, Bronwen. Dictionary of Semiotics. New York: Cassell, 1999.
    (Uris Ref P 99 .M357x 2000)

    [This work] "will be useful to students and other interested persons who are familiar with semantics and speech acts. Because the dictionary discusses mainly the French school of semiotics, many ideas of Ferdinand de Saussure, Hjelmslev, and other linguists are discussed. This overlap with linguistics will make the book easier to use for many students of linguistics.The first 14 pages give a systematically organized survey of the conceptual world of semiotics in a short but instructive introduction. The bulk of the book, however, consists of a glossary of semiotic terms, each entry giving a succinct yet clear encyclopedic discussion of a notion."
    -- L. Zgusta, ARBA 2001

  • Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. [Online version of the 10-volume Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. General editor, Edward Craig. New York: Routledge, 1998. (Olin Reference B 51 .R68 1998).]

    Can be browsed by philosophical themes, philosophies, historical periods, and religions. Full text entries can be searched by keyword, title, contributor, or bibliography.

  • Sebeok, Thomas A., ed. Encyclopedic Dictionary of Semiotics. 2nd revised ed. 3 vols. New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1994.
    (Olin Ref P 99 .E56 1994 )

    An alphabetically organized listing of entries dealing with technical terms, names of major contributors to semiotics, fields with which semiotics interacts, etc. Entries contain references to further reading which are described in full in Volume 3 of the set.

  • SYMBOLS.com. HME Media, 1997-1999.
    [Web site: http://www.symbols.com/. Accessed 1 March 2007. Note: Site contains advertising.]

    "SYMBOLS.com contains more than 2,500 Western signs, arranged into 54 groups according to their graphic characteristics. In 1,600 articles their histories, uses, and meanings are thoroughly discussed. The signs range from ideograms carved in mammoth teeth by Cro-Magnon men, to hobo signs and subway graffiti." [Home page]
    Searchable by subject word (Word Index) or by visual characteristics (Graphic Index).

There are also a number of online reference resources including encyclopedias and dictionaries available in the Find Databases section of the Cornell Library Gateway.

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THE CORNELL LIBRARY CATALOG

You can find materials owned by the Cornell University Library in the Cornell Library Catalog. This includes books, journals, magazines, newspapers, videotapes, audiotapes, music CDs, CD-ROMs, DVDs, manuscripts, microfilm, microfiche--in short, anything the library owns.

You can search by author, title, subject heading, call number, or journal title. You can also search by keyword--any combination of words in the author, title, subject, contents, and notes fields. Words are combined using the Boolean operators AND, OR, or NOT. You will have an opportunity to practice this searching in class.

This Web-based catalog also allows you to recall or put a hold on items that are currently checked out by other library users. Clicking on the Requests button and logging in allows you to see what you have checked out; you can also renew your books from this page.

For more information about using the catalog, click on the Help button on the catalog home page.

Things to remember about the Cornell Library Catalog:

  • The online catalog lists the holdings of all twenty Cornell libraries.

  • You cannot find journal articles in the catalog. Only the titles of journals, magazines, and newspapers are listed along with the years and volumes that we own. See the next section for more information about finding periodical articles.

Library of Congress Classification Outline
(Online at http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/lcco.html)
Your online guide to the call numbers we use and what they mean.

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FINDING PERIODICAL ARTICLES

Periodical indexes and abstracts identify and locate articles in periodical publications. They are often subject-oriented and list author, title, name of periodical, volume, pages and date of publication in entries called bibliographic citations.

Periodical abstracts are specialized indexes that also include summaries of the content of the articles with their citations.

Periodical indexes and abstracts also come in several formats: traditional and historical bound paper volumes, CD-ROMs for use at computer workstations, and networked databases available via the Internet. Ask a reference librarian when you need help choosing the best index for your topic.

Useful periodical indexes:

  • Academic Search Premier. EBSCO.
    (Library Gateway/Find it!/Databases)

    A general periodical database that provides citations and abstracts for articles from over 4,100 journals and includes full text from over 3,170 journals. You can limit your search to peer-reviewed articles (scholarly articles).

  • Art Full Text. New York: H.W. Wilson, September 1984 to date. Art Index Retrospective. 1929 - August 1984.
    (Library Gateway/Find it!/Databases)

    Indexes, abstracts and full-text from international periodicals, yearbooks, and museum bulletins. Areas covered include archaeology, architecture, art, film, humanities, marketing, motion pictures and photography.

  • Communication Abstracts. Beverly Hills: Sage/CSA, 1977- .
    (Library Gateway/Find it!/Databases; also in print: Mann Ref P 87 .C73)

    Covers major communication-related journals, reports, and books from a variety of publishers, research institutions, and information sources--providing coverage of recent literature in the areas of general communication, mass communication, advertising and marketing, broadcasting, communication theory, interpersonal and intrapersonal communication, small group communication, organizational communication, journalism, public relations, radio, public opinion, speech, and television.

  • LexisNexis Academic.
    (Library Gateway/Find it!/Databases)

    Provides access to full text resources on topics including current and general news; business and financial information; newspapers; company directories; government and politics; medical and health topics; accounting, auditing, and tax; federal and state laws; legal cases; and regulations. Resources include TV and radio news transcripts.

  • Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts. San Diego: Sociological Abstracts/CSA, 1967- .
    (Library Gateway/Find it!/Databases)

    LLBA is designed to provide rapid access to scholarly articles relevant to language and language behavior, regardless of disciplinary focus. Abstracts are grouped under such headings as linguistics, psychology, communication sciences, hearing, etc. with appropriate subdivisions. Entries are drawn from more than 1,000 journals, reports, occasional papers, etc., in some 30 languages. Publication is quarterly with an annual cumulated index. The online version is linked to library holdings.

  • MLA International Bibliography. New York: Modern Language Association/OCLC FirstSearch, 1926- .
    (Library Gateway/Find it!/Databases)

    An international index and database providing references to scholarly articles from over 4000 journals dealing with literature, folklore, literary theory, semiotics, and linguistics. It is useful for finding literary criticism of a particular author or work, as well as articles on literary theory, women's studies, popular culture, and performing arts. The online version of MLA covers 1926 to present. The print version (Z 7006 .M68) covers 1921 to the present. Volumes for 1921 through 1962 are shelved in Olin reference; the balance are in the Olin stacks.

  • ProQuest Research Library. Ann Arbor: UMI, 1986- .
    (Library Gateway/Find it!/Databases)

    Indexes and abstracts over 2000 general interest magazines, newspaper articles, and scholarly journals. It also includes citations and abstracts to selected television and radio programs. Many of the articles found by searching in this database are available in full text electronic formats. The database can be divided by subject (general or business), format (newspaper or magazine and journal articles), or by date.

  • PsycINFO. WebSPIRS: 1887- .
    (Library Gateway/Find it!/Databases) 1887- [Journal articles]; 1987- [Chapters and books]

    Contains abstracts and citations of the international literature in psychology and related behavioral and social sciences, including psychiatry, sociology, anthropology, education, pharmacology, and linguistics. Includes applied psychology, communication systems, developmental psychology, educational psychology, experimental human and animal psychology, personality, physical and psychological disorders, physiological psychology and intervention, professional personnel and issues, psychometrics, social processes and issues, sports psychology and leisure, and treatment and prevention.

  • Sociological Abstracts. Sociological Abstracts/OCLC FirstSearch: 1963- .
    (Library Gateway/Find it!/Databases)

    Contains records with abstracts from 3,000 journals covering sociology, social work, and conference papers.

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INTERNET RESOURCES

Cornell Library Gateway

The Library Gateway is the electronic front door to our libraries. It's also a searchable database of the thousands of online resources that we subscribe to, resources not available on the open Internet via Google, for instance. These databases are sometimes called the Deep Web. For an overview of databases by subject and to search for these databases, go to Find Databases.

In addition, here are a few Web sites of interest from the free Internet:

EVALUATING WHAT YOU FIND

CITING SOURCES

Give credit where credit is due. Cite your sources.

Try our newest tool for citation management, RefWorks. Refworks is an online citation manager: download your citations to RefWorks, add them to your paper, and generate your bibliography in all the standard formats, including MLA, APA, Chicago, and Turabian. Click here to see the schedule and to register for one of our free RefWorks workshops.

A four-page guide to MLA style with numerous examples is available at the Uris and Olin Reference desks.

Online style guides:

MLA Handbook in print:

  • Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: MLA, 2003.
    (Uris and Olin Reference Z 253 .M68 2003)

    This handbook is based on the MLA Style Manual and is intended as an aid for college students writing research papers. Included here is information on selecting a topic, researching the topic, note taking, the writing of footnotes and bibliographies, as well as sample pages of a research paper. Useful for the beginning researcher.


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RESEARCH AND REFERENCE HELP

Ask a Librarian!

Library Gateway Help

CU Library Catalog Help

  Live Chat Reference service

Reference e-mail: okuref[at]cornell.edu

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WRITING HELP

The Writing Workshop's Walk-In Tutorial Service for writers (You!)

Online Help:

Online Dictionaries for Definitions and Spelling:

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Revised 11 March 2008
Michael Engle
Olin/Uris Reference
URL: http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/frlit109c.html


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