Gilbert Lazard ( – ) was a French

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

and

Iranologist Iranian studies ( fa, ايران‌شناسی '), also referred to as Iranology and Iranistics, is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the research and study of the civilization, history, literature, art and culture of Iranian peoples. It ...

. His works include the study of various

Iranian languages The Iranian languages or Iranic languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau. The Iranian languages are groupe ...

, translations of classical Persian poetry, and research on linguistic typology, notably on

morphosyntactic alignment In linguistics, morphosyntactic alignment is the grammatical relationship between arguments—specifically, between the two arguments (in English, subject and object) of transitive verbs like ''the dog chased the cat'', and the single argument ...

. He also studied various ''

Polynesian languages The Polynesian languages form a genealogical group of languages, itself part of the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian family. There are 38 Polynesian languages, representing 7 percent of the 522 Oceanic languages, and 3 percent of the Austro ...

'' most notably the Tahitian language.

Career

Gilbert Lazard studied at the ''

École normale supérieure École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, S ...

'', graduated in 1946 ('' agrégation de grammaire'') and 1948 (Persian language diploma of the ''École nationale des langues orientales vivantes'', now the ''

Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales ( en, National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations), abbreviated as INALCO, is a French university specializing in the teaching of languages and cultures from the world. ...

'' - INALCO). He became a professor of Persian at INALCO from 1958 to 1966. From 1951 to 1969, he was in charge of the Iranian civilization course at the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

, where he became a lecturer (''maître de conférences'') (in 1960) and a professor (in 1966) for Iranian language and civilization . From 1969 to 1981, he taught at the University of Paris III: Sorbonne Nouvelle, where he was from 1969 to 1974 the director of the Orientalism department and from 1972 to 1987 the director of the Institute for Iranian studies (''Institut d'études iraniennes''). From 1972 to 1990, he held the research position of ''directeur d'études'' for linguistics and Iranian philology at the ''

École pratique des hautes études The École pratique des hautes études (), abbreviated EPHE, is a Grand Établissement in Paris, France. It is highly selective, and counted among France's most prestigious research and higher education institutions. It is a constituent college o ...

''. From 1972 to 1983, he led the research team on Iranian language, literature and culture associated to the ''

Centre national de la recherche scientifique The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,63 ...

'' (CNRS) and the University of Paris III: Sorbonne Nouvelle. From 1984 to 1993, he held responsibility for the CNRS research group « Recherche interlinguistique sur les variations d’actance et leurs corrélats » (Interlinguistic research on actancy variations and their correlates). On November 14, 1980, he was elected an ordinary member of the ''

Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France. The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions (epigr ...

. He was a member of numerous learned societies, including the ''Association pour l’avancement des études iraniennes'', the ''

Société de linguistique de Paris The Société de Linguistique de Paris (established 1864) is the editing body of the ''BSL'' (''Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique'') journal A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a met ...

'', the ''

Société asiatique The Société Asiatique (Asiatic Society) is a French learned society dedicated to the study of Asia. It was founded in 1822 with the mission of developing and diffusing knowledge of Asia. Its boundaries of geographic interest are broad, ranging ...

'' and the ''Association for Linguistic Typology''.Entry
in the directory of the Association for Linguistic Typology.

Notes and references

Bibliography

* Lazard, Gilbert. ''Actancy'', Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110808100 * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lazard, Gilbert 1920 births 2018 deaths Sorbonne Nouvelle University Paris 3 faculty Linguists from France Grammarians of Persian French Iranologists Translators from Persian École Normale Supérieure alumni École pratique des hautes études faculty Linguists of Iranian languages Linguists of Persian Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Members of the Société Asiatique 20th-century translators