ULB Düsseldorf is spatially distributed over several locations: the Central Library and five branch libraries. You can find a subject overview sorted by locations here.

Freely accessible media for the subject Linguistics are located in the Humanities Library PhilBib (building 23.21, 3rd floor).

The textbook collection for the subject can be found in the Humanities Library PhilBib (building 23.21, 3rd floor) too.

Media located in the "closed stacks" has to be ordered via the ULB catalogue.

Books in the reading rooms are shelved systematically, i.e. according to subjects and within the subjects, according to subject areas and topics.

The basis of the arrangement is the classification system, which divides the fields of knowledge into main groups and subgroups and is expressed by a letter-number combination (classification number), e.g. spr a 440. Classification numbers are used for the books’ shelf numbers, and you can use them to search the catalogue thematically.

Here is an example of a call number that can be found on the back of the title "Wissenschaftliches Arbeiten in der Linguistik."

spr a 440.r 847

Electronically available journals can be found via the Electronic Journals Database (EZB). Please ensure your VPN is activated, if you are not on campus.

Current issues of journals available in print can be found in the journal displays in PhilBib. The yearly bound journals are available under the call number spr z in the Humanities Library PhilBib (building 23.21, 3rd floor).

ULB also offers several full text databases that could contain relevant journals. You can find a list of databases ordered by subject in the Database Information System (DBIS).

With subject databases, you are searching in collections that are more tailored to your subject interests than the library catalogue. Subject databases usually offer more search functions and more detailed subject classifications.

Consult our Database Information System (DBIS) to find out which subject databases are available. Please activate your VPN first before searching, if you are not on campus.

An overview of some of the main language resources catalogues as well as databases, repositories and single corpora can be found here. Further resources can be found in the Database Information System (DBIS) and in the ULB catalogue.

Linguistics students as well as language enthusiasts can find some engaging reading suggestions surrounding the field of linguistics (facts and myths about language, endangered languages, word games as well as linguistics in fiction) here. The collection is curated by HHU Institute of Linguistics.

The complete collection is available on the website of the Institute of Linguistics.

Collection 2025

1. The Ingenious Language: Nine Epic Reasons to Love Greek (Andrea Marcolongo)
2. Signs of Civilisation: How punctuation changed history (Michalsen Bård Borch)
3. Atlas der vom Aussterben bedrohten Sprachen (Arnfrid Schenk, Stefan Schnell)
4. The AI Con (Emily Bender, Alex Hanna)
5. Thirty-Two Words for Field: Lost Words of the Irish Landscape (Manchán Magan)
6. Babel (R. F. Kuang)
7. Stilübungen (Raymond Queneau)
8. The Kingdom of Speech (Tom Wolfe)
9. Research Mate in African Linguistics (Mutaka Ngessimo, Larry Hyman)

Collection 2024

1. Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World (Irene Vallejo)
2. The Dictionary of Lost Words (Pip Williams)
3. Was macht der Fisch in meinem Ohr? Sprache, Übersetzen und die Bedeutung von allem (David Bellos)
4. The Penguin Book of Oulipo (Edited by Philip Terry)
5. Endangered Alphabets, an Essay on writing (Tim Brookes)
6. Poems from the Edge of Extinction: The Beautiful New Treasury of Poetry in Endangered Languages, in Association with the National Poetry Library
7. Just a Phrase I’m going Through, My life in language (David Crystal)
8. The language instinct (Steven Pinker)
9. Der einarmige Pianist: Über Musik und das Gehirn (Oliver Sacks)
10. Das glücklichste Volk: Sieben Jahre bei den Pirahã-Indianern am Amazonas (Daniel Everett)
11. Through the Language Glass (Guy Deutscher)
12. Die Evolution der Sprache: Wie die Menschheit zu ihrer größten Erfindung kam (Guy Deutscher)
13. Language Myths (Laurie Bauer & Trudgill)
14. Heterogenia Linguistico: An Introduction to Interspecies Linguistics (Seno Salt)
15. The Linguistics Wars (Randy Allen Harris)
16. The Semantics of Murder (Aifric Campbell)
17. The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy (John DeFrancis)
18. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: An edition printed in the International Phonetic Alphabet (Lewis Carroll, transcribed by Michael Everson)
19. The Awful German Language (Mark Twain)
20. Babel (Gaston Durren)