She obtained a Licence de Lettres (including Sanskrit studies) from the University of Strasbourg in 1967, and further degrees in archaeology and the history of art in Paris (1968–1969).
She received a diploma in Persian and Kurdish from the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales in 1971–1972, as well as in transformational and generative grammars from Paris VIII.
In 1975, she graduated with a master's degree in Iranian studies; her thesis titled Étude formelle et interprétation historique des inscriptions en Vieux-Perse de Darius le Grande was supervised by Gilbert Lazard.
[1] In her work on linguistic evolution and the development of writing, in particular that of Persian from its Elamite antecedents, Herrenschmidt discussed the significance of words, speech, their representation as signs, and the use of script as an ordering on earth of divine will.
Thereafter, critical analyses moved the direction the other way, with Aristotelian categories appearing in Persian writings, and a west-to-east influence accepted in the Sassanian period.
It analyzed the monetary writing of Ionian Greece, starting from the Artemision of Ephesus and proposing an in-depth analysis of Herodotus' story of the offerings of Croesus and his fate, in relation to Artemis.
[8] In the final part, the book discussed the development of computer languages and its causes and effects on human thought processes, as well as the overlay of an Anglo-American culture.