Projects

To complement my theoretical syntactic analysis, I am developing computational models that formally represent selected aspects of Behbahani agreement and alignment.

• Developing finite-state automata using Haskell to model interactions among tense, transitivity, stem choice, and agreement in a system without morphological case.
• Using functional programming as a way to make the analysis explicit, testable, and easier to compare with alternative accounts of split alignment.

To establish a durable empirical foundation for future research on Behbahani, I am developing a digitized corpus and a custom syntactically annotated treebank.

• Compiling a foundational textual corpus based on elicited data, naturalistic speech recordings, and fieldwork materials.
• Designing a theoretically informed syntactic annotation scheme tailored to Behbahani morphosyntax, including agreement patterns, stem alternations, and argument-structure distinctions.

Beyond formal analysis, I am invested in the documentation and visibility of Behbahani. This project grew out of fieldwork data collected in the LIN 431 fieldwork course, where I served as linguistic consultant and teaching assistant.

• Co-directed a collaborative documentation initiative with Daniel Greeson, using primary data elicited through the LIN 431 fieldwork course.
• Selected and mentored a team of ten undergraduate researchers from May 2024 through January 2025, guiding the transformation of raw fieldwork data into developed research projects.
• Developed the project as a bridge between language documentation, undergraduate research training, and formal analysis of an underdocumented Iranian language.