Bio
Dr. Chelliah's research is primarily in the field of documentary and descriptive linguistics which seeks to preserve, analyze, and mine data from little-studied endangered languages for the wealth of linguistic and cognitive information they offer while at the same time assisting communities in maintaining and renewing their linguistic and cultural heritage. She is currently the Program Director for the National Science Foundation’s Documenting Endangered Languages program. Chelliah has been working since 2008 on projects funded by the National Science Foundation to document Lamkang, a Tibeto-Burman language spoken in Northeast India. Her publications deal with linguistic field methodology, case marking in Tibeto-Burman, and the structure of Methei. Chelliah also conducts research on the structure and use of English around the world, with special emphasis on the teaching and use of English in the former British colonies. She teaches courses both in Linguistics and Teaching English as a Second Language tracks.
Education
Ph.D., Linguistics, University of Texas at Austin, 1992
M.A., Linguistics, University of Delhi, 1984
B.A., English Literature, St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, 1982
Courses
LING 3060: Principles of Language Study
LING 4070: History of the English Language
LING 4950: Senior Capstone Field Experience
Articles
Thounaojam, H., & Chelliah, S. (2007). The Lamkang language: Grammatical sketch, texts and lexicon. Linguistics of the Tibeto Burman Area, 30(1), 1-212.
Chelliah, S. (2005). Asserting nationhood through personal name choice: The case of the Meithei of northeast India. Anthropological Linguistics, 47(2),
Chelliah, S. (2004). Polysemy through metonymy: The case of Meithei pi `grandmother'. Studies in Language, 28(2).
More Articles
Chelliah, S. (2001). Constructs of Indian English in language 'guidebooks'. World Englishes.
Chelliah, S. (1990). A bibliography of Meiteiron (Manipuri) linguistics. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, 13(2), 73-86.
Chelliah, S. (1990). Level ordered morphology and phonology in Manipuri. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, 13(2), 27-72.
Books
Chelliah, S., & de Reuse, W. (2012). Handbook of descriptive linguistic fieldwork. Springer.
Chelliah, S. (2009). Semantic role to new information in Meithei. In J. Barodal & S.
Chelliah (Eds.), The Role of Semantic, Pragmatic, and Discourse Factors in the Development of Case (pp. 337-400). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
More Books
Chelliah, S. (2003). Meithei. In G. Thurgood & R. LaPolla (Eds.), The Sino-Tibetan Languages (pp. 427-438). Surrey, England: Curzon Press.
Chelliah, S. (2001). The role of text collection and elicitation in linguistic fieldwork. In P. Newman & M. Ratliff (Eds.), Linguistic Fieldwork, Cambridge University Press.
Chelliah, S. (1997). A grammar of Meithei. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Chelliah, S. (1995). An autolexical analysis of voicing assimilation in Manipuri. In E. Schiller, E. Steinberg & B. Need (Eds.), Autolexical Theory: Ideas and Methods, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Chelliah, S. (1992). Bracketing paradoxes in Manipuri. In M. Aronoffed (Ed.), Morphology Now, Albany, TX: State University of New York Press.
Chelliah, S. (1990). Experiencer subjects in Manipuri. In M. Verma & K. Mohanan (Eds.), Experiencer Subjects in South Asian Languages, Stanford, CA: Center for the Study of Language and Information.
Posters/Presentations
Chelliah, S., & Ray, S. (2000, June 26). Early Meithei manuscripts. In Beckwith, C.I. (Eds.), Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages. Leiden: E.J. Brill. Proceedings of a symposium at the 9th seminar of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, Leiden.
Chelliah, S., & Ray, S. (2000, June 26). A Glossary of 39 Basic Words in Archaic and Modern Meithei. In Beckwith, C.I. (Eds.), Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages. Leiden: E.J. Brill. Proceedings of a symposium at the 9th seminar of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, Leiden.
Chelliah, S. (1997). Competing language ideologies in Manipur. Proceedings of the 4th meeting of the symposium about language and society-Austin, University of Texas at Austin.
More Presentations
Chelliah, S. (1993). Morphological change and fast speech phenomena in the Manipuri verb. Proceedings of the 2nd meeting of the Southeast Asian linguistics society, Arizona State University.
