Natural Language Semantics is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering formal semantics and its interfaces in grammar. Its current editor-in-chief is Amy Rose Deal and it is published by Springer Science+Business Media. It is one of top four journals in formal semantics, alongside Linguistics and Philosophy, the Journal of Semantics, and Semantics and Pragmatics. Work published in the journal has been described as displaying "the same standards of lucidity and originality that mark its [founders] own thinking and writing". The journal was founded in 1993 by Irene Heim and Angelika Kratzer, who served as its first editors-in-chief. It was founded in order to provide a venue for research that integrates formal semantics with other branches of linguistics, in contrast to previously established journals that emphasized connections to logic and philosophy of language. In particular, NLS grew to be the central venue for the then-emerging study of crosslinguistic variation and typology within formal semantics. The journal played a crucial role in establishing formal semantics as a core area within theoretical linguistics.

Abstracting and indexing

The journal is abstracted and indexed in: • Social Sciences Citation Index • Scopus • EBSCO databases • Academic OneFile • Arts & Humanities Citation Index • Linguistic Bibliography • Bibliography of Linguistic Literature • FRANCIS • Linguistics Abstracts According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2022 impact factor of 1.1.