About

Travis Major is an Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California specializing in linguistics. His work centers on syntactic theory and fieldwork, with a particular focus on the empirical challenges of researching understudied languages. He investigates how novel empirical data from these languages can inform and advance syntactic theory. Major's research primarily explores the interactions between syntax-semantics and syntax-phonology/prosody, aiming to deepen the understanding of these linguistic interfaces. To align his fieldwork objectives with his theoretical goals, he dedicates significant effort to refining data collection techniques and methodologies, including the development of innovative approaches for fieldwork. His commitment to both theoretical linguistics and empirical data collection highlights his integrated approach to linguistic research.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Philosophy
• Natural Language Processing
• Artificial Intelligence
• Linguistics
• Sociology
• Library science
• History
• Psychology
• Anthropology
• Art
• Media studies

Selected publications

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

  Linguistic Inquiry · 2024-12-04

  article1st authorCorresponding

  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

• Re-analyzing ‘say’ complementation: Implications for case theory and beyond

  Natural Language & Linguistic Theory · 2024-01-12 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract This paper argues based on data from Uyghur (Turkic) that clausal complementation structures involving a special form of the verb ‘say’ are actually adjunct clauses headed by the verb ‘say’ that merge at two heights: VP or TP. I demonstrate that properties unique to ‘say’ as a main verb extend to ‘say’ in these adjunct clauses. Accusative subjects are a primary focus, where it is shown that the re-analysis of clausal complementation has implications for Case Theory in Uyghur and beyond.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Escape from Noun Complement Clauses in Avatime

  Languages · 2024-10-29

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  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

• Disentangling Words, Clitics, and Suffixes in Uyghur

  Languages · 2023-08-30 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Turkic languages have been shown to form words using a wide range of word-formation strategies, such as suffixation, cliticization, and auxiliaries. The present paper offers a detailed description of word formation in Uyghur, compares the patterns in Uyghur with the prior literature on Turkic, offers explicit diagnostics for suffixes and clitics, and proposes a morpho-syntactic analysis for each strategy.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• 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

• Are neutral roots in Uyghur really neutral? Evaluating a covert phonemic contrast

  Proceedings of the Annual Meetings on Phonology · 2022 · 82 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Linguistics
  • Artificial Intelligence

  This paper looks at the case of so-called neutral roots in Uyghur (Turkic: China), whose idiosyncratic behavior with respect to the backness harmony system has been analyzed as stemming from a covert vowel contrast. Based on considerations of the structural properties of the language and the results of an experimental study, we suggest that an analysis based on lexical exceptionality is more parsimonious than the traditional analysis, unifying the treatment of neutral roots with other cases of exceptionality in the harmony system and accounting for a relationship between the patterning of roots and their frequency. We close by discussing implications for covert contrast analyses in general.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Revisiting the Syntax of Monsters in Uyghur

  Linguistic Inquiry · 2021-03-03 · 7 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Shklovsky and Sudo (2014) propose a syntactic analysis of Uyghur indexical shift, a process by which embedded indexicals such as the counterparts of you and I are interpreted relative to the reported context, as opposed to the present discourse context. Introducing novel data, I offer an alternative analysis: namely, that there are two distinct types of tensed embedded clause that differ in clause structure, size, and the functional heads present within the structure. I correlate these properties with case, agreement, and indexical shift.

  PublisherDOI

• On the nature of "say" complementation

  2021 · 102 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Linguistics
  • Natural Language Processing

  This dissertation investigates the syntax and semantics of the verb ``say'' and clausal complementation involving the verb ``say''. Clausal complementation involving the verb ``say'' is among the most common strategies implemented across the world's languages and they exhibit morpho-syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic properties that differ from other types of clausal complementation. The goal of this dissertation is to offer a syntactic analysis that offers an explanation for these differences. Each language that has ``say'' complementation also has a grammatical mechanism whose responsibility is to link verbs to form complex predicates. The null hypothesis in this dissertation is that ``say'' complementation does not involve a ``complementizer'', but instead involves a clause containing the verb ``say'' that adjoins to the matrix clause. The three questions taken up are as follows: (i) What are the morpho-syntactic and semantic properties of the verb ``say''?, (ii) What are the morpho-syntactic and semantic properties of the clause-linking mechanism, and (iii) Do ``say'' complementation structures exhibit the properties of ``say'' in a serialization structure? These questions are answered based primarily on data from Uyghur, English, and Avatime.Chapter One introduces discussion of the main puzzles, introduces background information about Uyghur and Avatime, and introduces a brief literature review that this dissertation builds on. Methodological information is also provided within the discussion of each language.Chapter Two introduces in-depth discussion of the verb ``say'' in English. Building upon intuitions presented in Grimshaw (2015), a morpho-syntactic analysis of the verb ``say'' as the overt realization of an abstract ``Light Verb'' SAY is provided. It is shown that ``say'' alternates between being stative and dynamic, which has effects on argument structure. More specifically, only dynamic ``say'' is capable of licensing a Goal argument and an Agent, while stative ``say'' introduces only Linguistic Material (what was said) and its source. It is further shown that ``say'' is unique with respect to the range of internal arguments that it can take relative to other predicates. Based on a ``Flavours of little v'' analysis (Folli & Harley, 2005), it is argued that stative ``say'' involves a truncated structure embedded under vBE, which lacks all syntactic structure responsible for eventive/agentive semantics, while dynamic/eventive ``say'' involves a non-truncated structure. It is finally argued that certain predicates, such as ``scream'' manner adjoins to vDO, which prevents the predicate SAY from getting pronounced. The Chapter ends with discussion of the stative/eventive alternation in Avatime, which is reflected by the presence/absence of agreement morphology in the language.Chapter Three demonstrates that Uyghur shows the same stative versus eventive alternation observed for English, but further demonstrates that Uyghur ``say'' is unique in many ways that are distinct from English. Building upon Sudo (2012) and Shklovsky & Sudo (2014), it is argued that ``say'' is uniquely able to introduce a nominalized complement clause or a tensed complement clause, the latter of which resembles a finite (root) clause. It is proposed that the seemingly finite CPs vary in size. The larger CPs host monstrous or quotative operators that trigger Indexical Shift, which enable full feature transmission from C-to-T, yielding what looks like a root clause as it relates to case and agreement. ``Say'' additionally introduces a defective (reduced) CP, which does not allow full transmission of features, forcing the embedded subject to raise for case and resulting in default agreement on the embedded verb.Chapter Four offers an analysis of converbial constructions in Uyghur, which is the suffix found on the ``say'' element in Uyghur ``say'' complementation structures. It is shown that the converbial suffix has two adjunction sites: VP and TP, which has interpretive consequences. Novel data demonstrates that the distribution of converbial clauses in general account for the distribution of ``say'' complementation structures, followed by demonstrating that the properties of ``say'' illustrated in Chapter Three are similarly observed in ``say'' complementation structures, offering a syntactic account for observations made in Messick (2017) and explaining various unexplained issues described in Sudo (2012) and Shklovsky & Sudo (2014). The chapter concludes by offering brief discussion of the equivent structures in Avatime, demonstrating that its ``say'' complementation structures are built upon Nuclear Serial Verb Constructions in the language, which is functionally similar to converbial construcitons in Uyghur. For both languages, I conclude that ``say'' complementation structures are truly adjunction structures where ``say'' introduces a clausal complement, not classical CPs.Chapter Five offers discussion of Case Theory on the basis of the analysis in Chapter 4. Baker & Vinokurova (2010) and Baker (2015) introduce discussion of Sakha (Turkic) which has ``say'' complementation structures that are nearly identical to Uyghur. They argue in favor of Dependent Case Theory to account for the distribution of accusative case, on the basis of accusative case showing up in environments that seem to lack a verb capable of licensing accusative case. I demonstrate that in most environments, the verb ``say'' is present and capable of licensing accusative case. I conclude that the analysis of complementation in Chapter Four resurrects the debate between Dependent Case Theory and classical theories of case assignment, but suggest that even if we adopt Dependent Case Theory, the analysis in Chapter Four improves its explanatory power.

  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

• COLLOQUIUM- “Say”-chains, not “say”-complementation

  OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) · 2020-04-06

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

Frequent coauthors

• Harold Torrence

  University of California, Los Angeles

  5 shared

• Connor Mayer

  4 shared

• Philip T. Duncan

  University of Kansas

  3 shared

• Gülnar Eziz

  Harvard University

  2 shared

• Jason Kandybowicz

  The Graduate Center, CUNY

  2 shared

• Mahire Yakup

  Universiti Brunei Darussalam

  2 shared

• Lucas Boley

  1 shared

• Laura J. Downing

  University of Gothenburg

  1 shared