French Literature Reviews - 2026
É. Benveniste, Langues, cultures, religions
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics
Bibliographic reference: Émile Benveniste, Langues, cultures, religions, selected articles compiled by Chloé Laplantine and Georges-Jean Pinault, Éditions Lambert-Lucas, 2015. EAN13: 9782359350999.
É. Benveniste, Langues, cultures, religions. Selected articles compiled by Chloé Laplantine and Georges-Jean Pinault
Éditions Lambert-Lucas
The publication by Éditions Gallimard (Paris, 1966 and 1974) of Émile Benveniste's Problèmes de linguistique générale I and II introduced the world to a groundbreaking body of thought in linguistics and the humanities. Beyond his contributions to linguistic typology and history, this scholar is most frequently cited for concepts such as the theory of enunciation, linguistic pragmatics, and the dichotomy between "history" and "discourse." In doing so, however, people often overlook the fact that Émile Benveniste divided his research and teaching activities between these strictly linguistic "problems" and other fields, where languages and texts were examined to gain a comprehensive understanding of cultures, societies, and religions. Several of these contributions also fell within the realms of anthropology and poetics. To redress this omission, this volume brings together 34 articles published between 1930 and 1968, focusing on a wide variety of languages and cultures: from the classical world (drawing on Latin and Greek sources) and the Iranian and broader Indo-Iranian worlds, to non-Indo-European domains, notably Native American languages.
Chloé Laplantine is a researcher at the History of Linguistic Theories laboratory (UMR 7597 CNRS - Université Paris 7).
Georges-Jean Pinault is a professor of linguistics and philology at the École pratique des hautes études and a specialist in Tocharian, Sanskrit, and Indo-European studies.
The study of language as a window into social and cultural structures has long been a central concern in the humanities, particularly within the French tradition of structuralism and philology. By moving beyond the internal mechanics of grammar, scholars in this field often seek to map the relationship between linguistic forms and the broader evolution of human societies. This volume brings together 34 articles published between 1930 and 1968, focusing on a wide variety of languages and cultures, from the classical world to the Iranian and broader Indo-Iranian worlds, as well as non-Indo-European domains.
The articles gathered here demonstrate that Émile Benveniste divided his research and teaching activities between strictly linguistic problems and other fields, where languages and texts were examined to gain a comprehensive understanding of cultures, societies, and religions. These texts reflect a period of intense development in the study of Indo-European philology and comparative linguistics. Readers interested in the development of 20th-century linguistic thought and its application to cultural and religious studies may find this compilation of his diverse scholarly contributions relevant.