Acknowledgements

The research on which this monograph is based has been carried out at the Department of Modern Philologies of the University of La Rioja. It has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (project no. FFI2017-82730-P) and by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (project PID2020-118349GB-I00).

The co-author, Inés Lozano Palacio, has also received funding from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture, and Sports through a research scholarship, grant no. FPU16/05426. We are grateful to these institutions for supporting our research.

Many people have interacted with us and inspired our work. It would be impossible to list everyone by name. Let us, however, give due recognition to those with whom we cooperate on a more regular basis. These are the members of: the Rioja Research Group on Semantics, Syntax and Use of Language (University of La Rioja), the international Lexicom network (www​.lexicom​.es), and the M4 Metaphor and GMMG Gesture research groups, at the University of California, Berkeley. We thank them all for their invaluable academic kindness and analytical support. We are particularly indebted to Eve Sweetser and Len Talmy, who have taken time to challenge much of our thought and provide us with constructive feedback. We also want to express our gratitude to Cristina Rosique Gómez, for having so kindly created the illustrations that complement some of our analyses, and to the Figurative Thought and Language (FTL) series editors, professors Angeliki Athanasiadou and Herbert L. Colston, for their support during the preparation of this book.

Finally, a very special word of appreciation goes also to our family and friends, who have so patiently walked side by side with us. We affectionately dedicate this book to them.