In 2021, The Societas Linguistica Europaea established three awards for outstanding publications: an annual award for the best paper appearing in Folia Linguistica or Folia Linguistica Historica and two book awards to be awarded in alternate years. Each year, then, two awards will be given: one paper award and one book award.
Anna Siewierska Award: for the best Folia or FoLH paper
Frequency: annually
Prize: €1,000
Winners:
- 2023: Yunfan Lai (2022). When internal reconstruction goes further: proposing the vowel system of Pre-Khroskyabs through examining bound state apophony. Folia Linguistica Historica 43(1): 213-261.
- 2022: Ilja A. Seržant (2021). Cyclic changes in verbal person-number indexes are unlikely. Folia Linguistica Historica 42(1): 49–86. Appraisal in the August 2022 SLE Newsletter (p.4).
Next award date: 2024. This award does not require an application. All articles published in Folia and FoLH are eligible.
Award Committee: five members, including a chairperson (the member of the EC in charge of awards), the two journal editors (who would be thoroughly familiar with the articles in question) and two more members involved in the journals (e.g., the associate editors, the review editors, or members of the editorial boards). The chairperson will inform the EC about the two additional members who will serve on the committee.
The award concerning the publications of 2024 will be announced at SLE 2024 (Helsinki).
André Martinet Award: for an outstanding research monograph by a senior scholar which makes a significant contribution to the development of our understanding of language and linguistics.
Frequency: every two years (even years, alternating with the Eugenio Coseriu Award)
Prize: €1,000
Winners:
- 2022: Fernando Zúñiga and Seppo Kittil (2019). Grammatical Voice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics Series). Appraisal in the August 2022 SLE Newsletter (p.3). Link to the book.
Next application deadline: 28 February 2024. Applications or nominations by colleagues must be sent to sleATkuleuven.be, accompanied by an electronic copy of the book, a link to the URL of the publication and its ISBN, and a brief CV (no more than two pages) indicating university affiliation, current position, year of attainment of doctoral degree, main field(s) of research and previous publications. Upon request, hard copies should be provided.
Eligibility:
- Applicants must have been members of SLE for at least two years prior to application (i.e. at least 2022 and 2023). In the case of co-authored books, at least one author must be a member of SLE for at least two years prior to application.
- Books must be first published in 2020, 2021, 2022, or 2023.
- Collective edited volumes are excluded from consideration.
- Officers of the SLE committees are excluded from receiving awards.
Criteria:
- Novelty and originality.
- Depth and breadth of the study, both theoretically and empirically.
- Relevance for further research in the field.
- Clarity (arguments are clearly presented; text is comprehensible to a broad audience).
Selection Committee:
After advice from the Scientific Committee, the chairperson makes a proposal with four names to the Executive Committee, who approve or amend the selection. The members in question can be SLE officers or other SLE members invited by the EC/SC to do the selection job.
The five members are appointed for a term of two years, and serve on both book award committees.
Eugenio Coseriu Award: for an outstanding research monograph by a junior scholar which makes a significant contribution to the development of our understanding of language and linguistics.
Frequency: every two years (odd years, alternating with the André Martinet Award)
Prize: €1,000
Winners:
- 2023: Laura Becker (2021). Articles in the World’s Languages. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter (Linguistische Arbeiten Series). Appraisal in the October 2023 SLE Newsletter (p.5). Link to the book.
Next application deadline: 28 February 2025. Applications must be sent to sleATkuleuven.be, accompanied by an electronic copy of the book, a link to the URL of the publication and its ISBN, and a brief CV which must contain their university affiliation, main field(s) of research and previous publications. Upon request, hard copies should be provided.
Eligibility:
- Applicants can be postdocs, assistant professors, or associate professors, who should have completed their PhD no earlier than eight years before the year of application (for example 2017, for the 2025 application).
- Applicants must have been members of SLE for at least two years prior to application.
- Books must be first published in 2021, 2022, 2023, or 2024.
- Collective edited volumes are excluded from consideration.
- Officers of the SLE committees are excluded from receiving awards
Criteria:
- Novelty (says something that is not part of the published literature)
- Depth and breadth of the study, both theoretically and empirically
- Relevance for further research in the field
- Clarity (arguments are clearly presented; text is comprehensible to a broad audience)
Selection Committee (is the same for the two Awards):
After advice from the Scientific Committee, the chairperson makes a proposal with four names to the Executive Committee, who approves or amends the selection. The members in question can be SLE officers or SLE members invited by the EC/SC to do the selection job.
The five members are appointed for a term of two years, and serve on both book award committees.