Using Ref50

Ref50 is a reference database of articles on many linguistic topics, especially sociolinguistics. It runs via the Hypercard program on a Macintosh computer. Therefore, it can be thought of like a stack of index cards, one for each article or book listed. There is one card for each article. You can search for a particular word and see all the cards that contain it. These can then be printed out in bibliographic form. More information can be found by clicking the "Help" button in the program. It was constructed for the Linguistics Library at the University of Pennsylvania.

Getting Started

To turn on the Computer

1.Turn on the power strip located by the printer.

2. Turn on the computer by clicking the triangle key on the keyboard.

3. Then, double-click on the picture that says "Ref50," in the "Linguistics" folder.

To search for something

1. Press the Apple key and "F" at the same time. Or, click on "Find" in the "Go" menu. Don't use the "Find" button on the screen (it doesn't work).

2. Type a word or part of a word (like the first few letters of the author's name) in the new lower window, between the quotation marks.

3. Hit "return."

4. If there are any cards containing that word, the first one will appear. To see the next one, hit the "return" key. Keep hitting "return" until you come back to the first one again. If there aren't any cards with that word, it will tell you.

5. If you find yourself in any "weird" window, that looks different, click on "Back" in the "Go" menu until you see what you expect. (It takes you back to the card you were on before.)

To create a bibliography from Ref50 files

1. In Ref50, select any bibliography # (using up and down arrow keys).

2. Click "Bib."

3. Clear the bibliography if necessary.

4. Give it a unique name.

5. Click "Ref."

6. Click "Select."

7. Type in the search string (which only searches the "Key words" field).

8. Click "Bib."

9. Click "Export."

10. Open file from Word. Its title is what you designate in Step 4.

To add an entry

1. Click on the button that says "New" at the bottom of the card. You will see a new card with several blank fields.

2. In the "Author" field, type the author's (or authors') name(s), with last name first. Then put the year of publication. Be very careful about punctuation. Use the following format:

Smith, Chris, Jill Sankoff, & Pete Thibault. 1995.

3. Use the Tab key (or the mouse) to move to the next field ("Title").

4. Type the full title of the article, followed by a period.

5. Use the Tab key to move to the next field ("Pub.").

6. For a journal article, type the name of the journal, the volume number, and the pages. Use the following format:

Language in Society 7:1-16.

7. For a book, type the place of publication and publisher:

New York: Cambridge Press.

8. Hit "Tab" several times (or use the mouse) to move to the "Location" field. Type course number or "home" as appropriate.

Things you can search for

(besides authors, titles, and keywords)

LANGUAGES

AMERE$ American English
AR$ Arabic
AE$ Australian English
APE$ Appalachian English
ASL$ American Sign Language
BRE$ British English
BE$ Black English
CE$ Canadian English
D$ Dutch
E$ English
F$ French
FC$ French Creoles
C$ Chinese
G$ German
GR$ Greek
HI$ Hiberno-English
I$ Italian
JCE$ Jamaican Creole
K$ Korean
LTV$ Latvian
NYC$
OE$ Old English
P$ Portuguese
PHILA$
PRE$ Puerto Rican English
PRS$ Puerto Rican Spanish
R$ Russian
S$ Spanish
SCE$ Scots English
SSE$ So'ern States E.
TP$ Tok Pisin

LINGUISTIC VARIABLES

(3S) 3rd person singular -s
(A) tensing of short /a/
(A-) a-prefixing
(AEH) tensing of short /a/
(A/O) backing of /a/ to /o/
(AW) /au/
(AY0) cent'n of /ay/
(BE) copula
(COP) copula
(CR) Canadian raising
(IF) Span IF tenses
(LIKE) verb of quotation
(MEAT)
(N) nasalization
(NEGQ) neg. quantifiers
(PASS) passive
(PROG) progressive
(R) /r/
(REL) Relative clause
(RETRO) retroflexion
(S) Span asp & del
(TD) Cluster simplification

TOPICS

ACQ acquisition
APPROX approximants
BWDIV B/W divergence
BOR borrowing
CDC cross-dial. comprehension
CON contact
CP critical period
CS code-switching
CURV curvilinear pattern
DA discourse analysis
DEM demography
DIA dialectology
DIS discourse
DIV divergence
EPIC
ETH ethnicity
ETHC ethno'y of comm.
ETHN ethnomethodology
EVOL evolution
FN functionalism
FREQ frequency
GEM geminates
GP Generative Phonology
GS Generative Syntax
GVS Great Vowel Shift
GX grammatical change
IS implicational scales
HIS historical/comparative
LD lexical diffusion
LDTH language death
LI linguistic insecurity
LIT literature
ML multilingualism
LP language planning
MOR morphology
NEOG neogrammarian sx
NoC No. City shift
NRMGR near-merger
NETWKS social networks
OCP Obligatory Contour Principle
OT Optimality theory
PC pidgin/creole
PHILA Philadelphia
PHON phonological analysis
PSY psycholinguistics
Q quantitative study
R&A rapid & anonymous
RURB rural/urban
S/W speech & writing
SEM semantics
SNET semantic networks
SEX sex differences
SH shift
SLFR self-report tests
SOC sociology
SPLX syntactic complexity
SRT subj reaction tests
SS social stratification
STS stylistic stratification
SYN syntax
SYS one system or two
TMA tense, mood, aspect
TESOL
UNIV universals
V variation
VR variable rules
XIN experiments on intuitions
XINT experiments on intuitions
WEAK weak equivalence

To stop for the day

1. In the "File" menu, click "Quit."

2. Click "Shut Down" in the "Special" menu.

3. Turn off the power strip.

4. Lock the door when you leave!