Hi there!

I am a PhD student in the Department of Linguistics at Stony Brook University. I am also affiliated with the Institute for Advanced Computational Science. I work with Jeffrey Heinz.

My research interest is primarily in computational linguistics with a focus on tone languages. Specifically:

• tonal representation and autosegmental theory
• interaction between tone and intonation/segments
• production and perception of tones
• computational models of tonotactics and tonal processes

Before Stony Brook, I received my master’s degree from Nanhang University (Nanjing, China) in 2021. My thesis investigated phonetic cues of rhetorical questions in Mandarin.

I have also conducted fieldwork in Northwest China, working with languages and dialects such as Uyghur (Xinjiang) and Lanzhou Mandarin (Gansu). Other languages of interest include Wu dialects, Cantonese, Hokkien, and Hausa.

My Chinese name is 李晗 (Lǐ Hán), where lǐ means “plum” and hán means “dawn”. I was born and raised in Turpan, Xinjiang, a region known for its multilingual environment, including Mandarin, Uyghur, Kazakh, Sichuanese, and Shanghainese.