Michael B. Smith

Professor
332 O'Dowd Hall
(248) 370-2173
smith@oakland.edu

Education

Research Interests

Cognitive linguistics, syntax and semantics, German and Russian linguistics

Selected Publications and Presentations

"The Semantics of Complementation in English: A Cognitive Semantic Account of Two English Complement Constructions," Language Sciences 31: 360-388, 2009.

Semantics: A Coursebook, 2nd edition, (co-author, with James R. Hurford and Brendan Heasley). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.

"Reference Point Constructions, the Underspecification of Meaning, and the Conceptual Structure of Palauan er," Oceanic Linguistics 45.1:1-20, 2006.

"The Conceptual Structure of German Impersonal Constructions," Journal of Germanic Linguistics," 17.2: 79-140, 2005.

"Cataphoric Pronouns as Mental Space Designators:  Their Conceptual Import and Discourse Function," in Cognitive and Communicative Approaches to Linguistic Analysis, Robert S. Kirsner, Ellen Contini-Morava, and Betsy Rodriquez-Bachiller (eds.). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 61-90, 2004.

"The Polysemy of German es, Iconicity, and the Notion of Conceptual Distance," Cognitive Linguistics, 13:67-112, 2002.

"The Semantics of to-Infinitival vs. -ing Verb Complement Constructions in English" (with J. Escobedo), in The Proceedings from the Main Session of the Chicago Linguistic Society's Thirty-seventh Meeting, Andronis, M., C. Ball, H. Helston, and S. Neuvel (eds.). Chicago:  Chicago Linguistic Society, 549-564, 2001.

Conceptual and Discourse Factors in Linguistic Structure, (editor, with A. Cienki and B. Luka). Stanford: CSLI Publications, 2001.

"Some Aspects of Path-like Iconicity in German Separable Verb Constructions." in A. Cienki, B. Luka, and M. B. Smith (eds.) Conceptual Structure, Discourse, and Language.  Stanford:  CSLI Publications, 215-236, 2001.

"Why Quirky Case Really Isn't Quirky (Or How to Treat Dative Sickness in Icelandic)." in H. Cuyckens, B. Zawada, and D. Tuggy (eds.) Polysemy in Cognitive Linguistics.  Amsterdam:  John Benjamins, 115-159, 2001.

"Cataphors, Spaces, Propositions: Cataphoric Pronouns and their Function," in The Proceedings from the Main Session of the Chicago LInguistic Society's Thirty-sixth Meeting, Okrent, A. and J. Boyle (eds.), Chicago:  Chicago Linguistic Society, 483-500, 2000.

"From Instrumental to Irrealis:  Motivating Some Grammaticalized Senses of the Russian Instrumental." in Proceedings of the 1998 Annual Workshop on Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics.  Ann Arbor:  Michigan Slavic Publications, 413-433, 1999.

"Semantic Motivation vs. Arbitrariness in Grammar:  Toward a More General Account of the Dative/Accusative Contrast with German Two-way Prepositions," in I. Rauch and G. Carr (eds.) Insights in Germanic Linguistics I:  Methodology in Transition (Trends in Linguistics, Studies and Monographs, 83). Berlin/New York:  Mouton de Gruyter, 293-323, 1995.

"Agreement and Iconicity in Russian Impersonal Constructions," Cognitive Linguistics 5:5-55, 1994.

"Aspects of German Clause Structure from a Cognitive Grammar Perspective," Studi Italiani di Linguistica:  Teorica e Applicata 22:601-638, 1993.

"Cases as Conceptual Categories:  Evidence from German," in R. A. Geiger and B. R. Ostyn (eds.) Conceptualizations and Mental Processing in Language (Cognitive Linguistics Research 3).  Berlin/New York:  Mouton de Gruyter, 531-565, 1993.