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Part of
History of Linguistics 2021: Selected papers from the 15th International Conference on the History of the Language Sciences (ICHoLS 15), Milan, 28 August – 1 September
Edited by Savina Raynaud, Maria Paola Tenchini and Enrica Galazzi
[Studies in the History of the Language Sciences 133] 2024
► pp. 200–212

Chapter 13
Three documents bearing on the foundation of the Linguistic Society of America in the age of scientific racism

| Boston College
The centennial of the Linguistic Society of America invites reflection on how the organization has arrived at its current activist stance, which prioritizes social-justice issues and anti-racist initiatives within the discipline of linguistics. This article highlights the inward-looking nature of the foundation of the LSA in 1924, offset against the so-called scientific racism that imbued early twentieth-century American public discourse. I examine three short texts produced at the outset of the institutionalization of the LSA, all (co-)authored by Leonard Bloomfield, that communicate the centripetal social dynamics of the foundation of the society and its insistence on the scientific nature of the study of language — together lending a particular complexion to the group within the sociocultural world of early twentieth-century America.
Keywords: Foundation of the Linguistic Society of America, racism in linguistics, scientific racism, Leonard Bloomfield
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Three texts that document the foundation of the LSA
    • 2.1The recruitment letter
    • 2.2“The call”
    • 2.3Bloomfield (1925): “Why a linguistic society?”
  • 3.A professional society for “us” linguists
    • 3.1The inward-looking nature of the early LSA in a context of external threats
    • 3.2Racism and the early LSA
  • 4.A society to promote the science of language
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
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