About

Hi there! I am Charlie Yan1 2, a 4th year PhD candidate of Linguistics at Queen Mary University of London. I am supervised by David Adger and Coppe van Urk. I got my MA in English Linguistics at University College London, and my BA in Italian at Shanghai International Studies University.


My research areas are primarily syntactic theory and interfaces with syntax (but my work touches upon formal semantics somewhat as well!). Currently, I am working in detail on the clausal architecture, the theory of Extended Projection, and a series of problems related to (overt) movement.


Before becoming a linguist, I was an educational product designer, specialising in competency-based education targeted at students ranging from secondary school to university. Now I only teach linguistics and design related course materials.


I am also a pop-science writer and translator in spare time, concentrating specifically on language sciences (within the broader context of cognitive science).

1My Chinese name is pronounced as [tɕʰjoʊ xɑʊ, jɛn].

2I go by 'Qiuhao Charles Yan' on academic occasions.