November 17, 2003

Awards and Honors

Book coauthored by Professor Geoffrey Pullum wins Linguistic Society Award

The Linguistic Society of America announced that The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, coauthored by UCSC linguistics professor Geoffrey K. Pullum and published by Cambridge University Press, has been selected as the winner of the seventh biannual Leonard Bloomfield Book Award. Established in 1992, the award recognizes the volume which "makes the most outstanding contribution to the development of our understanding of language and linguistics."

Geoffrey Pullum Photo: Barbara C. Scholz

The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) was founded in 1924 to advance the scientific study of language. LSA is the largest linguistic society in the world and is the only umbrella professional linguistics organization in the U.S., with over 7,000 personal and institutional members.

The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language is the first definitive grammar reference book of standard international English in more than 20 years. It involved more than a decade of work by the authors, Rodney Huddleston and Pullum, with the assistance of an international team of a dozen contributing linguists. Firmly based on research in modern linguistics, it rejects many errors of the older tradition, supporting its departures from traditional grammar with reasoned arguments.

Pullum is a linguist specializing in the study of English, and has published widely on the scientific study of language. He has authored a dozen books and nearly 200 technical articles within the field of linguistics.

The award will be presented at the LSA Business Meeting in January during the organization’s 78th Annual Meeting at the Sheraton Boston Hotel.

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