Malmkjaer K. (ed.) The Linguistics Encyclopedia

Routledge, 2006. — 824 p.You are reading something, or listening to a lecture, or taking part in a conversation about language. You notice an unfamiliar term or realize that you don’t know enough about what is being said to understand. At this point, you should seek out this encyclopedia. Strategies for the use of encyclopedias differ, but this one is designed to allow you to proceed in one of three ways:
You can consult the Index where you will find the term or subject in question appearing in its alphabetically determined place, with a page reference, or several, which will tell you where in the main body of the work it is defined, described and/or discussed.
If you are looking for a major field of linguistic study, you can consult the Subject List where the entries and other major subjects are listed in alphabetical order.
You can simply dive into the body of the work.
The entries are designed to be informative and easy of access. They do not provide as much information as you will find in a full book on any given topic, but they contain sufficient information to enable you to understand the basics, and to decide whether you need more. They end by listing some suggestions for further reading. The entries draw on many more works than those listed as further reading. These are mentioned in the text by author and year of publication, and a full reference can be found in the Bibliography at the end of the book.