Emile Benveniste (May 27, 1902 - October 3, 1976)
Emile Benveniste, who died in Versailles on October 3, 1976, was a scholar who for over thirty years embodied his discipline in all its fullness and diversity.
He was born in Aleppo in 1902. Agrégé in grammar in 1923, he immediately turned to the study of Indo-Iranian languages and civilizations, under the guidance of Sylvain Lévi, Antoine Meillet and Paul Pelliot. As early as 1927, the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes entrusted him with the teaching of ancient Iranian; his mastery was confirmed through a long series of lectures on the recently revealed Sogdian, Avestic, Old Persian and comparative Indo-Iranian religion. From 1930 until the tragic accident in 1970 that tore his pen from his hands and silenced him, Benveniste gave new impetus to the Société de linguistique de Paris; thanks to him, the Society's activity, the quality of its meetings and the Bulletin, in which most of his work appeared, maintained the high standards that Meillet had set.
However, the comparative grammar of Indo-European was undergoing profound changes, following the discovery and deciphering of previously unsuspected languages. Emile Benveniste, one of the first, had the intuition that the very principles of prehistoric reconstruction needed to be called into question. His thesis on L'Origine de la formation des noms, a bold and powerful work, qualified him to succeed Meillet in the "comparative grammar" chair at the Collège de France, where he joined in 1937. After a four-year hiatus, during which he sought refuge first in southern France and then in Switzerland, he resumed teaching in 1944. While multiplying his contributions to Iranian philology, he now concentrated his efforts in two parallel directions: historical grammar and General Linguistics. His growing interest in morphological and structural problems became increasingly apparent. He turned his attention to the history of Saussurean thought, and to the criticism of Sapir and Jespersen. He was introduced to exotic languages. He pushes forward the analysis of the notions of sign, function and system. He shows more clearly than ever before the need to make a rigorous distinction between the facts of language and speech. When it comes to historical grammar, he is drawn to the most difficult problems, to the exploration of the most obscure sectors of the ancient world: Old Latin, Etruscan, Sumerian, Tokharic, Hittite, Armenian. An unashamed philologist, he also did not disdain humble fieldwork, whether on the edge of the Pamir or among the Alaskan Amerindians. In one of his latest books - and not the least - he systematically tackles the analysis of Persepolitan onomastics on the basis of previously unpublished material. In the field of semantics and vocabulary, where he excelled, his doctrine is based on a renewed reading of the great literatures: Greek, Latin and French. We remain astonished by the extent of his research and the wealth of his information, always first-hand.
Emile Benveniste possessed to a rare degree two complementary talents: logical rigor in the analysis of facts and the art of constructing vast syntheses. Hence his place among modern linguists. Of all those who have claimed to be Ferdinand de Saussure's followers, only he has never deviated from the straight line traced by the Genevan master. His work is a balance of reason and experience; it bears the hallmark of classicism.
The teacher, the man whose scientific reflection seemed to absorb all his vitality, was rather cold and reserved in manner; but his frail person, constantly striving for the right expression, emanated a dense, nervous, incisive elocution, devoid of pretense and rhetoric. His readings, like his conversation, inspired admiration, a passionate attachment that in many of his disciples, in France and abroad, went as far as devotion.
His testament is two masterpieces of thought and style, Problèmes de linguistique générale and Vocabulaire des institutions. As Joseph Vendryes wrote, concluding his review of one of his works, Noms d'agent et noms d'action: "at the same time as they will fill with ease the most demanding old comparatists, giving them full confidence in the future of their science, such books will provide for a long time to come models for young people to admire, and to imitate, if they can".
Emmanuel Laroche, 1977.
Reference
Printed
Laroche E., " Emile Benveniste (May 27, 1902 - October 3, 1976) ", L'annuaire du Collège de France, Paris, Collège de France, n° 78, 1977, p. 59-60.
