Acknowledgements

Writing this book has been a long process and has been made possible by the help and support of many people and institutions.

I would like to thank John Benjamins Publishing Company for publishing my book. The editors of the CAL series, Jan-Ola Östman and Kyoko Ohara, and the editor at John Benjamins Esther Roth, have been helpful and supportive through the process. Two anonymous reviewers have read an earlier version of the manuscript and given valuable comments, for which I am very grateful.

The very first draft of the book was written in the fall of 2013 when I had the opportunity to spend a semester at Tufts University as a Research Fellow in the department of Cognitive Science and concentrate on my research. The sabbatical period was made possible by financial support from Åbo Akademi University and the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters.

I am extremely grateful to Ray Jackendoff for his support, comments, and advice. They have meant a lot.

I have presented my ideas at different conferences and seminars. I would particularly like to thank the participants in the Linguistics Research Seminar at Åbo Akademi University and the Linguistics Seminar at Tufts University for their feedback.

My doctoral students (now doctors) at Åbo Akademi University, Oksana Petrova, Geda Paulsen, and Michaela Pörn have written their Ph.D. theses within the Tiernet approach and have contributed enormously to the theory.

Dr. Martin Gill has skillfully and patiently read the manuscript and helped me with the English language. The remaining errors are, however, entirely mine.