Acknowledgements

First of all, I am greatly indebted to my mentors, Profs. Sylviane Granger and Liesbeth Degand. Ever since I was a bachelor student, Sylviane has been pushing me to tap into potential that I never knew I had. I am immensely grateful to her for her unshakeable confidence, her unwavering support and her endless enthusiasm towards my work. The present book owes a great deal to her invaluable input and investment. Despite her busy schedule, Liesbeth has always made herself available for – most commonly unplanned – talks about my work in her office. I was also very lucky to benefit from her extensive expertise and her vast network of relationships in the field of discourse analysis, which were a great asset in the framework of the research presented in this book.

I also wish to express my warmest thanks to Prof. Gaëtanelle Gilquin (and her mind-blowing analytical capabilities), Prof. Marie-Aude Lefer (also known as my ‘contrastive linguistics godmother’), Prof. Hilde Hasselgård and Prof. Sandrine Zufferey (who were both kind enough to welcome me on extremely enriching research stays while I was working on this book) for all the time and consideration that they devoted to my work. I would also like to thank Dr. Magali Paquot, Alain Guillet and Jonathan Dedonder, who were always willing to answer the (numerous) questions that I had about statistics.

Heartfelt thanks are also owed to my dear colleagues from the Centre for English Corpus Linguistics, who created the best working environment I could ever have dreamed of, characterised by positive emulation, mutual support and benevolence. Some of my best friendships were born there, and I will forever cherish my time as a CECL member. I also acknowledge the financial support of the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.-FNRS).

Finally, I wish to thank my family and friends, who have always supported me and believed in me, while also forcing me to maintain a healthy work-life balance by taking me out for drinks, barbecues and cupcakes. Last but not least, a million thanks to my official team of supporters, Martin and Félicie, for letting me do what I like doing, however demanding it can be.