[2] 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".

[3] 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.

[4][3] In particular, NLS grew to be the central venue for the then-emerging study of crosslinguistic variation and typology within formal semantics.

[5] The journal played a crucial role in establishing formal semantics as a core area within theoretical linguistics.