Michael B. Smith

Associate 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

"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.