Only a limited amount of Émile Benveniste’s work is available in English translation.
Problèmes de linguistique générale was published in two volumes in 1966 and 1974 by Gallimard, and later reprinted in the Tel series (volumes 1 and 2). The first volume brought together essays from 1939 to 1964, and was compiled by Benveniste himself. The second volume was compiled by Mohammed Djafer Moïnfar and Michel Lejeune after Benveniste’s 1969 stroke, and includes texts written between 1965 and 1969, though published as late as 1972.
The first volume was translated by Mary Elizabeth Meek in 1971 as Problems in General Linguistics. That text is long out of print, though pirate scans are online. Fortunately there is a new and expanded edition forthcoming from Hau books, edited by Jordan K. Skinner, though it is long delayed.
The second volume has not been translated in full. Only a few of its essays are available in English translation. I’m happy to add any that I’ve missed. Links are to online versions, though three require subscription.
Ch. 1, “Structuralism and Linguistics“, trans. Matt Reeck, Jacket Magazine 35
Ch. 3, “The Semiology of Language”, trans. Genette Ashby and Adelaide Russo, Semiotica (supplement), 1981, 5-23, reprinted in Semiotics : An Introductory Anthology, ed. R. Innis, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985. The original French essay was published in Semiotica in two parts.
Ch. 4, “Language and Human Experience”, trans. Nora McKeon, Diogenes 13 (51), 1965, 1-12. The original essay was published in Diogène in parallel.
Ch. 5, “The Formal Apparatus of Enunciation”, in Johannes Angermuller, Ruth Wodak and Dominique Maingueneau (eds.), The Discourse Studies Reader, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2014, 140-45 (incomplete).
Ch. 6, “The Structure of Language and the Structure of Society”, in Linguaggi nella società e nella tecnica: Convegno promosso dalla Ing. C. Olivetti & C., S. p. A. per il Centenario della nascita di Camillo Olivetti: Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnica Milano, 14-17 ottobre 1968, Milano: Edizioni di Comunità, 1970, 459-69 – the French was originally published in the same volume, 17-28. A new translation by Andrew Eastman appeared in James McElvenny (ed.), The Limits of Structuralism: Forgotten Sources in the History of Modern Linguistics, Oxford University Press, 2023, 288-297. This is introduced by Chloé Laplantine, “Émile Benveniste on the relation between linguistic and social structures”, 267-88.
Ch. 9, “Mutations of Linguistic Categories”, trans. Yakov Malkiel and Marilyn May Vihman, in W.P. Lehman and Yakov Malkiel (eds.), Directions for Historical Linguistics: A Symposium in Historical Linguistics, April 29-30 1966, Austin: University of Texas Press, 1968, 85-94. This proceedings is now available online. This English version was published first, the version in Problèmes 2 is the original, previously unpublished.
I may well have missed some, since I didn’t know all these before compiling the list, so I hope it’s helpful. Additions or corrections very welcome.
Many thanks to Jordan K. Skinner for the reference to the first, the reprint of Ch. 3 and the new translation of Ch. 6.
Other Works
Of Benveniste’s other books, only two have been translated completely:
Le Vocabulaire des institutions indo-européennes, 2 volumes (Vol I: Économie, parenté, société and Vol II: Pouvoir, droit, religion), Paris: Éditions de Minuit, 1969; Indo-European Language and Society, trans. Elizabeth Palmer, Coral Gables: University of Miami Press, 1973; reprinted as Dictionary of Indo-European Concepts and Society, trans. Elizabeth Palmer, Chicago: Hau Books, 2016.
Dernières Leçons: Collège de France 1968 et 1969, ed. Jean-Claude Coquet and Irène Fenoglio, Paris: EHESS/Gallimard/Seuil, 2012; Last Lectures: Collège de France 1968 and 1969, trans. John E. Joseph, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2019.
Chapter IX of Origines de la formation des noms en indo-européen, Paris, Adrien Maisonneuve, 1935, “Esquisse d’une théorie de la racine”, 147-73, was translated as “Sketch of a Theory of the Root”, trans. Theodore M. Lightner, Paper in Linguistics 10 (1-2), 1977, 101-34.
As far as I’m aware, only two other articles are translated:
“Symbolisme social dans les cultes gréco-italiques”, Revue de l’histoire des religions 129, 1945, 5-16; reprinted in Langues, cultures, religions, eds. Chloé Laplantine et Georges-Jean Pinault, Lambert-Lucas, 2015, Ch. 15; “Social Symbolism in Greco-Italic Cults”, trans. Arthur Goldhammer, in Nicole Loraux, Gregory Nagy and Laura Slatkin eds., Antiquities: Post-War French Thought Vol III, New York: The New Press, 2001, 439-47.
“La doctrine médicale des Indo-européens”, Revue de l’histoire des religions 130, 1945, 5-12, reprinted in Langues, cultures, religions, Ch. 16; “The Medical Tradition of the Indo-Europeans”, trans. Arthur Goldhammer, in Nicole Loraux, Gregory Nagy and Laura Slatkin eds., Antiquities: Post-War French Thought Vol III, New York: The New Press, 2001, 422-27.
Very happy to hear of any other pieces I have missed. In French, the best bibliography I know is by Md. Moïnfar in Mélanges Linguistiques offerts à Émile Benveniste, Paris: 1975.
