About the Leonard Bloomfield Book Award

First presented in 1992, this award recognizes a volume that makes an outstanding contribution of enduring value to our understanding of language and linguistics. Nominations must address the volume's exemplary scholarship, enduring value, novelty, empirical import, conceptual significance, and clarity, and include a brief citation that can be read at the presentation of the award.

Nomination Process
  • A nomination, consisting of a nomination form and copies of the nominated work, must be received by 11:59 PM (PT) on April 30, 2026.
  • The winner will be recognized at the Awards Ceremony at the 2027 LSA Annual Meeting in January.

Eligibility
  • All authors of nominated books should be current members of the LSA.
    • Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the selection committee for books whose authors are not all LSA members, such as books with co-authors who are native speaker language consultants who collaborated in the preparation of the book, but who are not otherwise part of the Linguistics community.
    • In all cases, at least one author must be a member of the LSA.
  • The nominated book must be published in the calendar year previous to the one in which they are nominated, i.e., only books published in 2025 are eligible.
  • Nominations must be accompanied by four copies of the book.
  • Publishers, as well as LSA members, may nominate a book for the Bloomfield Award.
  • Can a textbook or pedagogically oriented book be nominated for the Leonard Bloomfield Book Award? The Leonard Bloomfield Book Award prioritizes original research over pedagogically oriented works. While course-based books are valuable, they generally do not meet the Award's criteria for exemplary scholarship, enduring value, novelty, empirical import, conceptual significance, and clarity.
Criteria
  • Exemplary scholarship and enduring value
  • Novelty: says something that is not part of the published literature
  • Empirical Import: claims made are empirically falsifiable
  • Conceptual Significance: enriches overall understanding of the nature of human language
  • Clarity: points are clearly formulated; text is reader-friendly

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* 1. Your full name

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* 2. Your institution/employer

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* 3. LSA Contact ID# (login to your Member Portal to locate your ID number)

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* 5. Please select a sentence that best describes you.

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* 6. Do you give permission to be named in the award notification letter?

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* 7. Title of the nominated book

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* 8. Author(s) of the nominated book

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* 9. Publisher of the nominated book

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* 10. The nominated book must be published in the calendar year previous to the one in which they are nominated, i.e., only books published in 2025 are eligible.

What year was this book published?

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* 11. Please send or arrange with the book's publisher to have sent four copies of the nominated book to the Linguistic Society of America to arrive no later than April 30, 2026. Alternatively, you may provide instructions to access the book electronically below.

Delivery address:
Linguistic Society of America
Attn: Bloomfield Book Award Committee
201 East Main Street, Suite 810, Lexington KY 40507

Thank you for submitting your nomination! To complete the process, please click the "Submit Nomination" button below.

If there are any concerns about your nomination, the LSA Secretariat will contact you in mid-May.

If your nominated work is selected for the Bloomfield Award, the Award will be contingent on your supplying a citation of no more than 100 words that will be shared at the Awards Ceremony and on the LSA website.

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