Acknowledgements

The idea for this volume originated at the 4th International Conference on Figurative Thought and Language held by the Center for Philosophical and Humanistic Studies of the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa in Braga, Portugal in October of 2018, at which the present contributions were originally presented. I would like to express my gratitude to all the contributors for their insights and comprehensive cooperation and for responding with professionalism to all the requests that have been made of them, including extensive reviewing and lengthy processes of refereeing.

I am also deeply grateful to the editors of the Figurative Thought and Language series, for their generous and unwavering support from the very beginning. My sincere thanks go especially to Angeliki Athanasiadou, for her continuous encouragement and guidance.

Finally, I wish to thank the staff at John Benjamins for handling the manuscript in a most efficient way. Warm thanks go specifically to Esther Roth, for her interest in this project and her professional expertise and support, and to Ineke Elskamp who guided me through the production process in a very meticulous way.