Achla M Raina

Achla M Raina is a Professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur). Her expertise lies in cognitive and theoretical linguistics, with a focus on South Asian languages.

Education:

• PhD in Linguistics, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (1992)
• M.Phil in Linguistics, Delhi University (1984)
• M.A. in Linguistics, Delhi University (1982)
• M.A. in English Literature, Kashmir University (1980)
• B.A. in English Literature, Kashmir University (1978)

Research Focus: Her work spans Cognitive Linguistics, Pragmatics, Lexical Semantics, and Sign Linguistics, with particular attention to Indic languages like Kashmiri and Hindi. She explores how meaning is constructed in language through cognitive and cultural lenses.

Teaching Areas: She teaches courses in cognitive linguistics, natural language semantics, computational linguistics, language acquisition, language evolution, Indian linguistic tradition, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, philosophy of language, generative linguistics, communication studies, and language teaching.

Publications Overview: Her research output includes studies on classifier systems in Kashmiri, co-eventual verbs in Hindi, and semantic compositionality in complex predicates, reflecting a deep engagement with both theoretical and empirical linguistics.

Contact: achla@iitk.ac.in | Office: FB324, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Kanpur | Phone: +91-512-259-7894