Linguistic Society of America

Linguistic Society of America. The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) was founded by Leonard Bloomfield, George Melville Bolling, and Albert Louis Kroeber, among others, with the goal of advancing the scientific study of language. The LSA is affiliated with the American Council of Learned Societies and the International Science Council. The society's activities are supported by National Science Foundation grants and National Endowment for the Humanities awards.

● History

The LSA was established on December 28, 1924, at a meeting attended by Edward Sapir, Franz Boas, and other prominent linguists of the time, including Otto Jespersen and Benjamin Lee Whorf. The society's early years were marked by the publication of the journal Language, which was founded by William Dwight Whitney and is still published today. The LSA has also been influenced by the work of Noam Chomsky, Roman Jakobson, and Joseph Greenberg, among other notable linguists. The society has held annual meetings since its founding, with recent meetings featuring keynote speakers such as Steven Pinker and Deborah Tannen.

● Organization

The LSA is governed by an executive committee, which includes the president, vice president, and secretary-treasurer, as well as representatives from various linguistics departments and institutions, including Harvard University, Stanford University, and the University of California, Berkeley. The society also has a number of committees and subcommittees, including the Committee on Ethnic Diversity in Linguistics and the Committee on Language and Social Policy, which work to promote diversity and social responsibility in the field of linguistics. The LSA is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Social Science Research Council.

● Activities

The LSA sponsors a number of activities and events, including the annual meeting, which features papers and workshops on a wide range of topics in linguistics, from phonetics and phonology to sociolinguistics and historical linguistics. The society also offers National Science Foundation-funded summer institutes, which provide training and support for linguistics students and faculty, including those from University of Chicago, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and University of Michigan. Additionally, the LSA has partnered with organizations such as the Endangered Languages Project and the Linguistics Olympiad to promote language preservation and education.

● Publications

The LSA publishes the journal Language, which is one of the premier journals in the field of linguistics, featuring articles by scholars such as John Searle, Paul Hopper, and Elizabeth Traugott. The society also publishes a newsletter, the LSA Bulletin, which includes news and announcements about the society and its activities, as well as articles and reviews on topics of interest to linguists, including linguistic anthropology and cognitive science. The LSA has also published a number of books and monographs, including the Linguistic Society of America Handbook and the Dictionary of Linguistics.

● Awards_and_Honors

The LSA presents a number of awards and honors to recognize outstanding contributions to the field of linguistics, including the Leonard Bloomfield Book Award, which is given annually to the author of the best book in linguistics, and the Virginia Kirk Award, which is given to outstanding young scholars in the field, such as Mark Liberman and Barbara Partee. The society also presents the Linguistics, Language, and the Public Award, which recognizes outstanding work in promoting linguistics to the general public, including the work of John McWhorter and Geoffrey Pullum.

● Membership_and_Conferences

The LSA has a diverse membership of over 4,000 linguists from around the world, including University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, and Australian National University. Members receive a subscription to Language and the LSA Bulletin, as well as discounts on registration fees for the annual meeting, which is held in conjunction with the American Dialect Society, the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas, and other organizations. The LSA also offers student memberships and reduced rates for members from developing countries, including China, India, and Brazil. Recent conferences have featured keynote speakers such as Judith Butler and Michael Tomasello, and have been held in locations such as Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco. Category:Linguistics