About

Harold Torrence is a professor in the UCLA Department of Linguistics with a Ph.D. obtained in 2005 from UCLA. His research focuses on the comparative syntax and morphology of African and Native American languages. He is involved in projects that include training students for fieldwork in Africa, specifically through hands-on work with native speakers of endangered and understudied languages spoken in Ghana, such as Avatime and Logba. Torrence also investigates the morpho-syntax and semantics of headless relative clauses in Mesoamerican languages, organizing workshops to train scholars, particularly junior native speaker linguists, in data collection and research on these constructions. His scholarly contributions include numerous publications on topics such as clause structure, question formation, and relative clauses in various languages, with a particular emphasis on Wolof, Krachi, and Mixtec languages.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Sociology
• Philosophy
• Linguistics
• Anthropology
• Natural Language Processing
• Media studies
• Mathematics
• History
• Library science

Selected publications

• Indeterminate pronouns in Kaqchikel

  Linguistic Variation · 2024-01-12

  article

  Abstract This paper investigates the morphology, syntax, and semantics of five non-interrogative constructions that involve wh-expressions in Kaqchikel, a Mayan language of the K’ichean branch spoken in Guatemala. We focus on the properties of maximal free relative clauses, existential free relative clauses, ever free relative clauses, free choice items and negative indefinites. We show that the interpretive properties of these constructions are strikingly similar to those found in a number of unrelated languages.

  PublisherDOI

• Escape from Noun Complement Clauses in Avatime

  Languages · 2024-10-29

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  This paper discusses the status of island phenomena in Avatime, an endangered Kwa language of Ghana. We focus on clausal adjuncts, specifically noun complement clauses (NCCs). We show that while standard adjuncts are strong islands in Avatime, NCCs allow argument extraction. We suggest that this is related to the fact that NCCs in Avatime are not a type of relative clause. Instead, NCCs involve a kind of serial verb construction, which independently allows for extraction.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Picking Up a Friend along the Way: A′-Movement through the v/VP Region in Avatime

  Linguistic Inquiry · 2024-12-04

  articleSenior author

  Abstract This paper investigates the nature of successive cyclicity. Based on novel data from Avatime, this paper provides further evidence that successive cyclic A′-movement obligatorily transits through the vP region of all clauses between the extraction site and the landing site of the wh-expression. Evidence comes from pied-piping patterns related to wh-movement and pieces of complex verbal idioms.

  PublisherDOI

• Managing Data for Theoretical Syntactic Study of Underdocumented Languages

  The MIT Press eBooks · 2022 · 10 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Natural Language Processing
  • Computer Science
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Predicate fronting with verb doubling in Krachi: A parallel chains analysis

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2021-06-17 · 2 citations

  book-chapterSenior author

  This article examines verb doubling predicate focus constructions in Krachi, an endangered language of Ghana. Krachi has three such constructions: one where V alone appears in the left periphery; another where VO has been fronted; and a third involving OV inversion in the fronted constituent. Regardless of the fronted expression, the constructions can be interpreted either contrastively or exhaustively. We argue that all three constructions involve the same mechanism – the formation of parallel chains anchored to the same syntactic object. We propose that the parallel chains formed in all three cases are identical, involving one v⁰-to-T⁰ head movement chain and one v’-to-Spec, FocP A-bar chain. The reduction of these chains at PF yields the surface doubling of the predicate without appeal to multiple copy spell-out. We propose that minor differences in the PF interpretation of the peripheral v’ copy account for the differences in word order between the three constructions.

  PublisherDOI

• Headless Relative Clauses in Iliatenco Me'phaa

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2021 · 3 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Mathematics
  • Linguistics
  • Philosophy

  This chapter documents the morpho-syntactic and semantic properties of headless relative clauses in a variety of Meꞌphaa spoken in Iliatenco, Guerrero, Mexico. Meꞌphaa possesses four types of headless relative clauses, which can be divided into two groups: those introduced by <italic>wh-</italic>expressions (free relative clauses), and those not introduced by <italic>wh-</italic>expressions. The former type is composed of three varieties: maximal free relative clauses, which are largely productive; existential free relative clauses, which are limited to a few <italic>wh-</italic>expressions; and free-choice free relative clauses, which are introduced by <italic>ájndo</italic> ‘until.’ The second type of headless relative clause is simply introduced by a relativizer/subordinator. Nearly all Meꞌphaa <italic>wh-</italic>expressions participate in some or all kinds of free relative clauses. However, the inanimate argument <italic>wh-</italic>expression <italic>dí(ne</italic>) ‘what’ seems to be robustly impermissible in such constructions.

  PublisherDOI

• Headless relative clauses in Mesoamerican languages

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2021-01-01 · 2 citations

  book

  Preface Acknowledgments List of Contributors List of Abbreviations Chapter 1. Introducing Headless Relative Clauses and the findings from Mesoamerican languages Ivano Caponigro Chapter 2. Headless Relative Clauses in Southeastern Tepehuan (O'dam) Gabriela Garcia Salido Chapter 3. Headless Relative Clauses in Tlaxcala Nahuatl Lucero Flores-Najera Chapter 4. Headless Relative Clauses in Acazulco Otomi Nestor Hernandez-Green Chapter 5. Headless Relative Clauses in Matlatzinca Enrique L. Palancar and Leonardo Carranza Martinez Chapter 6. Headless Relative Clauses in Iliatenco Me'phaa Philip T. Duncan and Harold Torrence Chapter 7. Headless Relative Clauses in San Pedro Mixtepec Zapotec Pafnuncio Antonio-Ramos Chapter 8. Headless Relative Clauses in K'iche' Telma Angelina Can Pixabaj Chapter 9. Headless Relative Clauses in Q'anjob'al Eladio Mateo Toledo Chapter 10. Headless Relative Clauses in Chuj Justin Royer Chapter 11. Headless Relative Clauses in Ch'ol Juan Jesus Vazquez Alvarez and Jessica Coon Chapter 12. Headless Relative Clauses in Tseltalan Gilles Polian and Judith Aissen Chapter 13. Headless Relative Clauses in Yucatec Maya Scott AnderBois and Miguel Oscar Chan Dzul Chapter 14. Headless Relative Clauses in Sierra Popoluca Wendy Lopez Marquez Chapter 15. Headless Relative Clauses in Pesh Claudine Chamoreau Index

  Publisher

• Celebrating 50 years of ACAL

  2021

  • Sociology
  • Computer Science
  • Library science

  The papers in this volume were presented at the 50th Annual Conference on African Linguistics held at the University of British Columbia in 2019. The contributions span a range of theoretical topics as well as topics in descriptive and applied linguistics. The papers reflect the typological and genetic diversity of languages in Africa and also represent the breadth of the ACAL community, with papers from both students and more senior scholars, based in North America and beyond. They thus provide a snapshot on current research in African linguistics, from multiple perspectives. To mark the 50th anniversary of the conference, the volume editors reminisce, in the introductory chapter, about their memorable ACALs.

  Publisher

• African Linguistics on the Prairie

  2020 · 2 citations

  • Sociology
  • Linguistics
  • Sociology

  African Linguistics on the Prairie features select revised peer-reviewed papers from the 45th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, held at the University of Kansas. The articles in this volume reflect the enormous diversity of African languages, as they focus on languages from all of the major African language phyla.  The articles here also reflect the many different research perspectives that frame the work of linguists in the Association for Contemporary African Linguistics. The diversity of views presented in this volume are thus indicative of the vitality of current African linguistics research. The work presented in this volume represents both descriptive and theoretical methodologies and covers fields ranging from phonetics, phonology, morphology, typology, syntax, and semantics to sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, language acquisition, computational linguistics and beyond.  This broad scope and the quality of the articles contained within holds out the promise of continued advancement in linguistic research on African languages.

  Publisher

• African linguistics on the prairie: Selected papers from the 45th Annual Conference on African Linguistics

  Directory of Open access Books (OAPEN Foundation) · 2018-04-17 · 12 citations

  bookOpen accessSenior author

  African linguistics on the prairie features select revised peer-reviewed papers from the 45th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, held at the University of Kansas. The articles in this volume reflect the enormous diversity of African languages, as they focus on languages from all of the major African language phyla. The articles here also reflect the many different research perspectives that frame the work of linguists in the Association for Contemporary African Linguistics. The diversity of views presented in this volume are thus indicative of the vitality of current African linguistics research. The work presented in this volume represents both descriptive and theoretical methodologies and covers fields ranging from phonetics, phonology, morphology, typology, syntax, and semantics to sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, language acquisition, computational linguistics and beyond. This broad scope and the quality of the articles contained within holds out the promise of continued advancement in linguistic research on African languages.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Jason Kandybowicz

  The Graduate Center, CUNY

  12 shared

• Sami Alsolamy

  8 shared

• Rui Tato Marinho

  Centro Hospitalar Lisboa Norte

  7 shared

• Yaseen M. Arabi

  King Abdulaziz Medical City

  7 shared

• L. McIntyre

  7 shared

• A. Marinho

  Hospital de Santo António

  7 shared

• Ascanio Tridente

  Whiston Hospital

  7 shared

• Shane English

  University of Ottawa

  6 shared