Émile Benveniste facts for kids

Émile Benveniste (born May 27, 1902 – died October 3, 1976) was a French expert in linguistics. Linguistics is the study of language. He was a "structural linguist," meaning he looked at how language is built like a system. He also studied semiotics, which is the study of signs and symbols.

Benveniste is famous for his work on Indo-European languages. These are a large family of languages spoken across Europe and parts of Asia. He also changed some important ideas about language that were first developed by Ferdinand de Saussure.

Biography

Émile Benveniste was born in Aleppo, a city in what was then the Ottoman Empire. His family was Sephardi Jewish. When he was young, his father sent him to Paris, France. He was meant to study to become a rabbi, a Jewish religious leader.

However, after finishing high school (getting his baccalauréat), he decided to study language instead. He joined a famous school called the École pratique des hautes études. There, he learned from important teachers like Antoine Meillet. Meillet had been a student of Ferdinand de Saussure, a very influential linguist.

Benveniste finished his first degree in 1920. He later returned to the same school in 1927 to teach. In 1935, he earned his doctorate degree. His main research was about how noun roots (the basic parts of words) are formed.

In 1937, Benveniste became a professor at the Collège de France. This is a very respected institution in France. He taught there until 1969. In December 1969, he had a stroke. This left him unable to speak properly, a condition called aphasia.

Earlier that year, he had been chosen as the first president of a group called the International Association for Semiotic Studies. He stayed in this role until 1972. Émile Benveniste passed away in 1976 at the age of 74.

Career and Ideas

When Benveniste first started his career, his work was very detailed and technical. This meant that only a small group of experts understood it. In the late 1930s, he caused some debate. He questioned an important idea by Saussure about the "sign" in language.

Saussure believed that a word (the "signifier") and the idea it represents (the "signified") were separate. He thought the link between them was just a psychological choice and not fixed. Benveniste disagreed with this idea in his work Nature du signe linguistique.

Major Works

Benveniste became much more widely known after publishing his important book, Problèmes de linguistique générale. This title means Problems in General Linguistics. The book was published in two parts, in 1966 and 1974.

This book showed his careful scientific work. It was also written in a clear style that people who weren't experts could understand. It brought together many of his writings from over 25 years.

In one chapter, Animal Communication and Human Language, Benveniste argued that human language is special. He said it's not just like how bees or other animals communicate. Human speech is much more complex than a simple "stimulus-response" system.

The "I" and "You" in Language

Another key idea Benveniste explored was the difference between "I" and "you." He showed how these words are very important in how we use language.

He explained that "I" means "the person who is speaking right now." This "I" is unique each time someone says it. It only makes sense in that specific moment of speaking.

On the other hand, "you" is defined as "the person being spoken to right now." These definitions show how "I" and "you" are basic parts of language. They depend on who is speaking and who is listening.

Statements and the Act of Stating

A very important idea in Benveniste's work is the difference between the énoncé and the énonciation. This came from his study of pronouns like "I" and "you."

The énoncé is the statement itself, without thinking about who said it or when. For example, "The sky is blue" is an énoncé.

The énonciation is the act of making that statement. It includes the speaker, the listener, and the situation. For example, if you say "The sky is blue" while looking at a clear sky, that's the énonciation.

This idea led Benveniste to see language as a "discursive instance." This means he saw language as something that is actively used and performed. It's not just a set of rules, but something we do.

Influence on Other Thinkers

Benveniste's ideas influenced many other important thinkers. Roland Barthes, one of the founders of structuralism, attended Benveniste's classes.

Pierre Bourdieu, another famous scholar, helped publish Benveniste's other major work. This book was called Vocabulaire des Institutions Indo-Européennes (1969). The title can be a bit confusing. It's not just a list of words.

Instead, it's a deep study of important social behaviors and traditions. It looks at how these ideas are expressed in different cultures. These include Germanic, Romance, Greek-Roman, and Indo-Iranian societies. Benveniste used words from these languages as starting points for his study.

Many modern French philosophers have been inspired by Benveniste's Vocabulaire. They use his methods and his ideas about the difference between meaning and what a word refers to. For example, Jacques Derrida's work on "hospitality" was directly inspired by Benveniste's study of words related to hosts and guests.

Publications translated to English

• 1971: Problems in General Linguistics (original French title: Problèmes de linguistique générale, vol. 1, 1966), translated by Mary Elizabeth Meek. Coral Gables, Florida: University of Miami. ISBN: 0-87024-132-X.
• 1973: Indo-European language and society (original French title: Le Vocabulaire des institutions indo-européennes, 1969), translated by Elizabeth Palmer. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN: 0-87024-250-4. Later republished as Dictionary of Indo-European Concepts and Society, translated by Elizabeth Palmer. Chicago: HAU Books 2016. ISBN: 0-98613-259-4.
• 2018: Last lectures: Collège de France, 1968 and 1969 (original French title: Dernières leçons : Collège de France 1968 et 1969, edited by Jean-Claude Coquet and Irène Fenoglio, 2012), translated by John E. Joseph. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN: 9781474439916.

Selected works

• Hittite et indo-européen : études comparatives
• Indo-European language and society
• Les infinitifs avestiques
• Langue, discours, société (a book written in honor of Benveniste)
• Origines de la formation des noms en indo-européen
• The Persian religion, according to the chief Greek texts
• Problèmes de linguistique générale (2 volumes)
• Le Vocabulaire des institutions indo-européennes
• Inscriptions de bactriane extraits
• Last lectures: Collège de France, 1968 and 1969

See also

In Spanish: Émile Benveniste para niños