In this special issue we brought together a number of articles whose convergence may not be immediately evident to our readers. Varying in almost all respects from their conceptual underpinnings, through the methodologies used, and to the very objects of their inquiry the articles may leave the reader wondering what was the ultimate motivation to bring them together in one special issue of the journal. Indeed, at their face value, the foci of the papers, namely, the conceptualization of the distinctions within the affective domain (Deonna & Teroni) and, more specifically, within the emotion domain (Cochrane), the affective (non-propositional and connotative) effects of language that go beyond its representational capacity (Moeschler, Soriano & Valenzuela), and the pan-temporal and pan-cultural translatability of lexical and narrative emotion (Nelis, Bouvier, Zufferey) may seem reminiscent of the famous Jamesian ‘shapes of the rocks on a New Hampshire farm', all quite unique and interesting, but not providing a unifying, central point of view (James, 1890: 448).