Full Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at the University of Barcelona (Spain). He published several studies on linguistics, semiotics and communication theory. He received the St. George’s Cross Award from the Catalan government in 2003. His first book, Elementos de lingüística matemática (“Elements of mathematical linguistics”, Anagrama, 1975) won the Anagrama Essay Award. Two of his most recent books are La fiesta de los sentidos (“The festival of senses”, Now Books, 2009) and Del amor, la mentira y la persuasión (“Of love, lies and persuasion”, Destino, 2013).