Michał Szawerna is an associate professor at the Department of Translation Studies in the Institute of English Studies, University of Wrocław (IES UWr). In 2004, he defended his doctoral dissertation on de-verbal nouns in English at the University of Wrocław. The dissertation was written under the supervision of prof. Michał Post. In 2018, by resolution of the Council of the Faculty of Philology, University of Wrocław, he received his habilitation degree.
In the years 2021–2023, he served as the Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Polish Cognitive Linguistics Association (PCLA). He currently serves as a member of the Editorial Board of the PCLA journal Language, Mind, Culture, and Society (LaMiCuS). He also serves as a Thematic Editor of the IES UWr’s journal Anglica Wratislaviensia (AW).
In recent years, he has also served as an external collaborator and contributor in Dr. Neil Cohn’s project titled “Visual narratives as a window into language and cognition” (“TINTIN”) (Department of Communication and Cognition, Tilburg University, The Netherlands) funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
Michał Szawerna is the author of two monographs, co-editor of several multi-author monographs, editor of one volume of AW and co-editor of several volumes of LaMiCuS, as well as author and co-author of a number of other academic publications. His academic interests include cognitive linguistics and multimodality studies.
Monographs
2017 Metaphoricity of Conventionalized Diegetic Images in Comics: A Study in Multimodal Cognitive Linguistics (Łódź Studies in Language 54). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
2007 A Corpus-Based Study of Nominalizations Predicated by English De-Verbal Nouns in ‑tion (European University Studies Series XIV: Anglo-Saxon Language and Literature 437). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Edited publications
2023 Anglica Wratislaviensia “Theoretical and Analytical Explorations of Multimodality” (AW 61.1.2023).
2022 (with Agnieszka Mierzwińska-Hajnos, Adam Głaz, Agnieszka Libura) Language, Mind, Culture and Society (LaMiCuS 6).
2020 (with Adam Głaz, Daniel Karczewski) Language, Mind, Culture and Society (LaMiCuS 4).
2018 (with Marcin Walczyński, Piotr Czajka) On the Verge of Language and Translation (Łódź Studies in Language 59). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
2016 (with Marek Kuźniak, Bożena Rozwadowska) From Motion to Emotion: Aspects of Physical and Cultural Embodiment in Language (Łódź Studies in Language 45). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
2014 (with Marek Kuźniak, Agnieszka Libura) From Conceptual Metaphor Theory to Cognitive Ethnolinguistics: Patterns of Imagery in Language (Studies in Language, Culture and Society 3). Frankfurt am Main et al: Peter Lang.
2012 (with Zdzisław Wąsik, Piotr Czajka) Alternate Construals in Linguistics (Philologica Wratislaviensia: Acta et Studia 8). Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Wyższej Szkoły Filologicznej.
Chapters in monographs
in press (with Neil Cohn) Iconicity in the visual lexicons of comics. In: Olga Fischer, Kimi Akita, Pamela Perniss (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Iconicity in Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press (preprint).
2024 Omówienie komiksowych środków wyrazu jako narzędzi przekładu multimodalnego z punktu widzenia teorii znaków C. S. Peirce’a. In: Aleksandra Knapik, Piotr Chruszczewski (eds.) Między tekstem a kulturą. Z zagadnień interpretacyjnych. San Diego: Æ Academic Publishing, 777–787.
2016 Cumulative representations of diegetic motion events in comics: A linguistic analysis. In: Marek Kuźniak, Bożena Rozwadowska, Michał Szawerna (eds.), From Motion to Emotion: Aspects of Physical and Cultural Embodiment in Language. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 271–292.
2013 On developing a cognitive account of comics. In: Marek Kuczyński, Leszek Szymański (eds.) Language, Thought, and Education: Across Systems. Zielona Góra: Oficyna Wydawnicza Uniwersytetu Zielonogórskiego, 131–147.
2012 The characterization of Marv in Frank Miller’s “Sin City”: A cognitive account. In:Maria Kiššová, Simona Hevešiová, Dana Mihăilescu, Dan H. Popescu, Michał Szawerna, Marek Tomášik Literary and Visual Dimensions of Contemporary Graphic Narratives. Nitra: Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, 128–155.
2012 Toward a cognitive linguistic approach to analyzing comics: the contrasting construals of comics in similarity-based views of conceptual representation. In: Zdzisław Wąsik, Piotr Czajka, Michał Szawerna (eds.), Alternate Construals in Linguistics. (Philologica Wratislaviensia: Acta et Studia 8). Wrocław: Wydawnicwo Wyższej Szkoły Filologicznej, 59–74.
2012 Superpower corruption: The blended universe of Watchmen by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and John Higgins. In: Zdzisław Wąsik, Michał Post (eds.), Papers in Axiological Linguistics 1.(Philologica Wratislaviensia: Acta et Studia7). Wrocław: Wydawnicwo Wyższej Szkoły Filologicznej, 87–101.
2011 Nominalization in cognitive grammar: A metaphorical or metonymic kind of semantic extension? In: Bogusław Bierwiaczonek, Bożena Cetnarowska, Anna Turula (eds.), Syntax in Cognitive Grammar. Częstochowa: Wydawnictwo Wyższej Szkoły Lingwistycznej, 81–90.
2010 A critical overview of cognitive grammar accounts of nominalization. In: Michaela Náhlikova, Maria Crhova (eds.), Silesian Studies in English 2009: Proceedings of the International Conference of English and American Studies. September 7 –8, 2009. Silesian University in Opava, Czech Republic. Opava: Slezská Univerzita v Opavě, Filozoficko–Přírodovědecká Fakulta Ústav Cizích Jazyků, 133–153.
2010 The cognitive grammar account of nominal periphrasis revisited: The prototype and the schema of the category comprising periphrastic expressions with of, by, and possessives. In: Bogusław Bierwiaczonek, Anna Turula (eds.), Studies in Cognitive Semantics. Częstochowa: Wydawnictwo Wyższej Szkoły Lingwistycznej, 151–157.
2007 Deverbal nominalization as a type of metonymic extension from processes to things. In: Krzysztof Kosecki (ed.) Perspectives on Metonymy. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 147–156.
2004 Towards a schematic network representation of the category comprising English deverbal nouns in ‑tion. In: Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, Alina Kwiatkowska (eds.) Imagery in Language: Festschrift in Honour of Professor Ronald W. Langacker. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 469–477.
2003 Nominalizacja odsłowna w gramatyce kognitywnej Ronalda W. Langackera. Anglica Wratislaviensia 40. Wrocław: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, 153–165.
2002 The secondary landmark-trajector indeterminacy in selected English deverbal nouns. In: Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, Kamila Turewicz (eds.), Cognitive Linguistics Today. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 535–552.
Papers in journals
2023 Film genre and theories of conceptual representation: Toward an account of film genres optimized for multimodality studies. Academic Journal of Modern Philology 19, 317–343.
2023 Metaphorical indicators of the hyperthemes of Dune: Part One (2021): A multimodal cognitive-linguistic case study. Anglica Wratislaviensia 61.1.2023, 77–105.
2021 The scope of the pictorial and the verbal in multimodal cognitive linguistic accounts of visual signification in modal ensembles comprising static planar signs. Academic Journal of Modern Philology 14, 313–336.
2020 Modality, medium, and more: A toolkit for the multimodal cognitive linguist. Sidenotes on Understanding Abstract Concepts across Modes in Multimodal Discourse: A Cognitive-Linguistic Approach (2020) by Elżbieta Górska. Anglica Wratislaviensia 58, 189–202.
2018 Visual metaphorization of events as objects in comics. Language, Mind, Culture and Society 2, 150–188.
2014 Metaphorical underpinnings of panels in comics. Academic Journal of Modern Philology 3, 89‒107.
2013 A Peircean characterization of the semiotic properties of selected visual signs found in comics. Ars Aeterna 5.1: “Word and Image in Contemporary Culture”, 51–72.
2012 Toward a cognitive linguistic approach to analyzing comics: a frame-theoretic characterization of the conceptual representation of comics. Anglica Wratislaviensia 50, 197–211.
2010 Cognitive grammar theory of nominalization and nominal periphrasis: The state of the art. Anglica Wratislaviensia 48, 115–124.
2008 Nominal periphrasis accompanying trajector and landmark nominalizations predicated by English de-verbal nouns in ‑tion. Anglica Wratislaviensia 46, 139–148.
2006 Rekonstrukcja schematycznego modelu sieciowego stanowiącego reprezentację struktury wewnętrznej kategorii złożonej z angielskich rzeczowników odsłownych zakończonych na ‑tion. Kształcenie językowe 5.15, 177–193.
1998 (with Piotr Czajka) The conceptualization of an abstract notion of discourse as a journey in selected lexical phrases with the noun point. Papers and Studies in Contrastive Linguistics 34, 273–284.
1997 Towards the complex base of the prototype of the lexical category ‘verbs of eating’ in English and in Polish. Papers and Studies in Contrastive Linguistics 32, 39–49.
Reviews in journals
2009 Cognitive grammar revisited: A book review of Ronald W. Langacker’s Cognitive Grammar: A Basic Introduction (2008). Anglica Wratislaviensia 47, 154–159.
