Lisa Travis

{{short description|Canadian linguist}}

Lisa deMena Travis is a researcher and educator in the field of linguistics, specializing in syntax and in the study of Austronesian languages such as Malagasy and Tagalog. She is currently a professor of linguistics at McGill University.{{Cite web|url = https://www.mcgill.ca/linguistics/people/faculty/travis|title = Faculty - Lisa deMena Travis|access-date = January 10, 2015|publisher =McGill University }} Her 1984 proposal{{Cite book|title = Parameters and Effects of Word Order Variation|last = Travis|first = Lisa|publisher = MIT (Dissertation)|year = 1984}} of the Head Movement Constraint, which seeks to account for limitations on the movement of syntactic heads in question formation, has become a cornerstone of generative linguistics.{{Cite book|title = MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science|last = Wilson|first = R.A and Frank C. Weil (eds.)|publisher = MIT Press|year = 1999|location = Cambridge, MA|pages = Head Movement}}

Lisa Travis is one of the co-founders of the Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association (AFLA), a learned society that provides forums for collaborative research and runs an annual conference.

Travis was consulted by the set design team of Denis Villeneuve's Arrival during the construction of the workplace sets for the protagonist, a linguist.{{Cite news|url=https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/watchwords-denis-villeneuves-new-film-arrival-gets-to-the-heart-of-language|title=Watchwords: Denis Villeneuve's new film, Arrival, gets to the heart of language|last=Abley|first=Mark|date=November 4, 2016|newspaper=Montreal Gazette|language=en-CA|access-date=January 5, 2017}}