At a time when technology and transport are making the world smaller and smaller and thus the need to communicate greater and greater, linguists have been prompted to make intercultural communication one of their major topics. Step by step and with the aim of achieving a greater understanding of and proficiency in intercultural encounters, linguists continue to describe and compare 'foreign' cultures, languages and communication patterns. Politeness, verbal and non-verbal rituals, social interaction such as greetings, invitations, small talk, telephoning, procedural matters in institutional multi-cultural negotiations are among the subjects dealt with in this volume. They will be of interest not only to linguists but also to all those involved in foreign language teaching, translation and the mass media.

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