In Intercultural Pragmatics, the first book on the subject, Istvan Kecskes establishes the foundations of the field, boldly combining the pragmatic view of cooperation with the cognitive view of egocentrism in order to incorporate emerging features of communication.

Introduction ; 1. Current pragmatic theories ; 2. The socio-cognitive approach ; 3. Pragmatic competence ; 4. Encyclopaedic knowledge, cultural models, interculturality ; 5. Formulaic language use ; 6. Context ; 7. Common ground ; 8. Salience ; 9. Politeness and impoliteness ; 10. Methods of analysis ; Epilogue

Intercultural Pragmatics provides a state-of-the-art theory-driven account of intercultural communication within the range of pragmatics. Its prodigious arguments on the discursive principles of intercultural encounters and its versatile adaptation of general pragmatic resources to intercultural pragmatics research confirm Istvan Kecskes profile as the most respected authority on intercultural pragmatics. I therefore strongly commend the book to all scholars interested in pragmatics, cultural studies, linguistic anthropology and sociology of language.

"This book introduces an important new dimension to the field of pragmatics, shedding much light on social interaction across cultural lines and on the way that language is used in these interactions." --Steven Pinker, author of The Language Instinct and The Stuff of Thought "Intercultural Pragmatics presents a valuable new perspective on how individual and cultural factors are intertwined in communication. Moving beyond the traditional pragmatic concern with utterance-length exchanges among monolingual speakers, and focusing instead on the distinctive features of discourse-length exchanges among speakers with different languages and cultures, it provides genuinely important insights into an exciting new field of research." --Deirdre Wilson, University of London "Istvan Kecskes, the internationally renowned forefather of intercultural pragmatics, has now written THE book on the subject. Professor Kecskes is an invaluable guide for exploring the sociocultural and cognitive dimensions of intercultural--and intracultural--communication and their implications for the study of pragmatics." --Laurence Horn, Yale University "In the increasingly globalized and 'translingual' world, intercultural communication is one of the greatest practical problems facing millions of people on a daily basis. How do they manage to communicate (if they do)? This is the central question of the new field of intercultural pragmatics, of which Istvan Kecskes is the spiritus movens. It is also the question at the heart of Kecskes's new book Intercultural Pragmatics. Few questions addressed by linguists today could be more important and more fascinating." --Anna Wierzbicka, Austral National University "Istvan Kecskes' book is a vivid and intriguing set of proposals for the understanding and explanation of verbal communication and human cognition that should bring a new light to a theory of meaning and human communication." --Jacques Moeschler, University of Geneva "This new work on intercultural pragmatics is no less than a tour de force, given its refreshingly new socio-cognitive approach and its insistence on the inclusion of neglected topics such as pragmatic competence, formulaic language and salience inter alia." --Professor Alain Peyraube, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France "What makes this book a must for those interested in intercultural communication is its comprehensive treatment of how multilingualism and individual and societal processes shape intercultural pragmatics...This timely resource is valuable for those interested in linguistics, intercultural communication, intergroup relations, and sociology...Highly recommended." --Choice "... Kecskes' book is a much needed monograph that summarises his extensive output, which has shaped research in the domain of intercultural pragmatics. However, as the author himself promises, it delivers much more than this. Apart from raising awareness of an often neglected setting in which communication takes place, it also covers an impressive array of topics that have been at the centre of attention in the study of language use, irrespective of interculturality. In this sense, even the comprehensive overviews of the literature on these topics render this book an indispensable reference point for anyone working in pragmatics." --LINGUST LIST

Selling point: The first book-length work on intercultural pragmatics Selling point: Analyzes how language systems are used in social encounters between speakers who have different first languages and cultures, yet communicate in a common language Selling point: Boldly combines the pragmatic view of cooperation with the cognitive view of egocentrism in order to incorporate emerging features of communication.

Istvan Kecskes is Professor of Linguistics and education at the State University of New York, Albany. He is the President of the American Pragmatics Association and Editor-in-Chief of the journals Intercultural Pragmatics (De Gruyter), Chinese as a Second Language Research (De Gruyter) and the Mouton Series in Pragmatics. He is the co-editor of the Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict (Benjamins).

Selling point: The first book-length work on intercultural pragmatics Selling point: Analyzes how language systems are used in social encounters between speakers who have different first languages and cultures, yet communicate in a common language Selling point: Boldly combines the pragmatic view of cooperation with the cognitive view of egocentrism in order to incorporate emerging features of communication.