Sophia Marmaridou is Professor Emerita of Linguistics at the Faculty of English Language and Literature of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and former Chair of the Faculty. She has a BA from the University of Athens, a postgraduate Diploma from the University of London, and an MPhil and PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK. Her research interests lie in the areas of Semantics, Pragmatics, Cognitive Linguistics (Metaphor Theory in particular), Construction Grammar, and Lexicography. She has contributed articles and monographs in these areas and has taught a variety of related courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Her current research focuses on the relation between culturally sanctioned speech act constructions and genre. She is one of the editors of Pragmatics (John Benjamins), a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Pragmatics (Elsevier Science) and the Pragmatics & Beyond New Series (John Benjamins) respectively, and a Board Member of IPrA. She is also a member of ICLA, and SLE. She has served as committee member of the National Publications Centre (Ε.ΚΕ.ΒΙ.) in Greece for the promotion of publications in the humanities and social sciences, while she has also contributed to the social and educational aims of the Phil-Educational Association of Athens (εν Αθήναις Φιλεκπαιδευτική Εταιρεία) as member. She is sponsor of SOS Children’s Villages, Greece (Παιδικά Χωριά SOS Ελλάδας).