This book is quite extraordinarily timely. In line with current trends in historical linguistics away from langue- to parole-focused work, it draws upon two methodological frameworks: corpus linguistics and historical pragmatics. That the book comes from the impressive 'school' which has done so much to develop these approaches is no surprise, but it remains truly exciting to see the productiveness of the approaches adopted here. The collection offers detailed studies of particular problems and issues alongside theoretical work with a more general interest, and can be recommended without reservation.

- Jeremy J. Smith, University of Glasgow,

The volume has many strengths and will appeal to pragmaticists with various interests: from an impressive range of languages under analysis (it is a signal for Slavonic linguistics to make its contribution), through intriguing historical and contextual detail, testing new corpus tools and statistical approaches, to redefining and delineating the scope of diachronic pragmatics itself.

- Joanna Kopaczyk, University of Edinburgh, in Journal of Pragmatics, Vol. 84 (2015), pag. 33-36,

This is an engaging volume with generally strong chapters that contribute significantly to our knowledge of a number of pragmatic phenomena in a range of languages. By identifying, labeling and articulating the sub-field of diachronic corpus pragmatics reflected in these articles, the editors have carved out disciplinary space for a particular set of approaches and goals. The outlining of this sub-field will undoubtedly attract new scholars to the area, and this promises to lead to further methodological innovation and discoveries about the interplay between language and context in historical periods.

- Peter J. Grund, University of Kansas, in Journal of Historical Pragmatics Vol. 16:2 (2015),