Pragmatics Across Languages and Cultures

The seventh of nine volumes in the Handbook of Pragmatics, which collectively aims to cover the entire field of pragmatics, defined as the analysis of language use in social contexts, this volume is dedicated to the relatively new field of pragmatics across languages and cultures. As in the other volumes, each contributed chapter combines a review of the literature and a critical evaluation of the topic at hand in light of recent developments. Given the broad nature of the subject, editor Trosborg (U. of Aarhus, Denmark) has limited the coverage to four key topical fields: contrastive, cross-cultural and intercultural pragmatics; interlanguage pragmatics; teaching and testing of second/foreign language pragmatics; and pragmatics in corporate culture communication. Some examples of specific topics addressed include telephone conversation openings across languages and cultures, pragmatics between East and West, the interface between intercultural competence and pragmatics research in studies of intercultural business discourse, the acquisition of terms of address in a second language, the pragmatics of English as a lingua franca, correcting others and self-correcting in business and professional discourse and textbooks, testing interlanguage pragmatic knowledge, credibility in corporate discourse, and corporate crisis communication across cultures. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Anna Trosborg, University of Aarhus, Denmark.