The Polish Linguistic Society was established on the initiative of Andrzej Gawroński on 31 May 1925. Preparatory work for the founding began a year earlier, and the Statutes of the Society were approved by the Provincial Office in Krakow on 16 February 1925. The Organisational General Meeting combined with the 1st Congress of PLS was held in Lviv on 31 May 1925, on the day of Pentecost – once the patronal feast of linguists. Until 1950, except for the first post-war Congress, the Congresses were held on Pentecost.
Before World War II, 11 Scientific Congresses of the Society were held (three each in Lviv, Krakow and Warsaw, and two in Poznań, the last of which took place on 5–6 May 1939).
From the very beginning, the Society has organised congresses, scientific discussions, and has carried out publishing work. In 1927, the first issue of the PLS Journal was published. The Journal featured papers from congresses and contributions to discussions on them, addressing issues of general and theoretical linguistics. Before the war, seven issues were published (1927, 1929, 1931, 1934, 1936, 1937 and 1937) with a total of 646 pages – until the war, they were published without subsidies, solely from the membership fees that were high for the pre-war period, initially 24 PLN, then 16 PLN and 12 PLN. In 1934, PLS also published Stanisław Słoński's Index verborum do Euchologium Sinaiticum. In the inter-war period, PLS represented Polish linguistics abroad and enabled Polish linguists to participate in scientific congresses abroad.
After World War II, PLS resumed its activities in 1947, mainly owing to the efforts of Jerzy Kuryłowicz. The 12th PLS Congress was held on 21 and 22 December in Krakow, marking the beginning of the PLS's post-war activities. After the war, PLS research groups were also active (from 1954, the Lublin PLS Research Group – Tadeusz Brajerski (30 scientific meetings), from 1956, the Warsaw PLS Research Group – Witold Doroszewski (40 scientific meetings)). However, the activity of the research groups was short-lived.
Since 1947, the Congresses have been held regularly once a year, with a break in 1982 due to martial law. On the 75th anniversary of PLS, Marian Kucała predicted that the number of members could reach 1,000, but just five years later, Antoni Furdal noted that the prestige of PLS had declined somewhat – in my opinion, there were various reasons for this, for example a multitude of associations. The number of PLS members is relative and depends on the number of members paying membership fees.
Every year, new members join, but more leave due to being removed from the register for more than two years of arrears in membership fees. Most summaries of the activities of PLS published on various occasions draw attention to the financial difficulties of the Society.
The issue IX in 1949 marked the beginning of the discussions on foreign linguistic works. Then, the issues from XIX in 1960 to LXV in 2009 featured Bibliography in the field of general and Indo-European linguistics.
However, despite various difficulties, PLS continues to operate, regularly publishing JPLS and holding congresses combined with scientific conferences. This is possible due to various research centres that are willing to co-organise the congresses and because of funding from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
Edited by Krystyna Data
Chairs of PLS since 1925
1925 – 1928 Jan Rozwadowski
1928 – 1929 Wiktor Porzeziński
1929 – 1930 Kazimierz Nitsch
1930 – 1931 Jan Rozwadowski
1931 – 1933 Stanisław Szober
1934 – 1935 Stanisław Słoński
1935 – 1937 Tadeusz Lehr-Spławiński
1937 – 1947 Kazimiezrz Nitsch
1947 – 1950 Jerzy Kuryłowicz
1950 – 1956 Zenon Klemensiewicz
1957 – 1958 Witold Doroszewski
1958 – 1961 Jan Safarewicz
1961 – 1964 Witold Taszycki
1964 – 1966 Zzdisław Stieber
1966 – 1968 Jan Safarewicz
1969 – 1971 Stanisław Urbańczyk
1971 – 1973 Witold Doroszewski
1974 – 1976 Władysław Kuraszkiewicz
1977 – 1980 Franciszek Sławski
1980 – 1981 Mieczysław Szymczak
1981 – 1985 Adam Heinz
1985 – 1988 Andrzej Bogusławski
1988 – 1991 Irena Bajerowa
1991 – 1994 Jan Siatkowski
1994 – 1997 Marian Kucała
1997 – 2000 Ewa Rzetelska-Feleszko
2000 – 2003 Antoni Furdal
2003 – 2006 Elżbieta Mańczak-Wohlfeld
2006 – 2008 Bogusław Dunaj
2008 – 2014 Renata Przybylska
2014 – 2017 Krystyna Kleszcz
2017 – 2022 Piotr Stalmaszczyk
2022- Tomasz Mika