This is the first edited collection to examine politeness in a wide range of diverse cultures. Most essays draw on empirical data from a wide variety of languages, including some key-languages in politeness research, such as English, and Japanese, as well as some lesser-studied languages, such as Georgian.

SHOSHANA BLUM-KULKA Professor Emerita in the Department of Communication and School of Education at the Hebrew University, IsraelEWA BOGDANOWSKA-JAKUBOWSKA Assistant Professor in the Institute of English at the University of Silesia in Katowice, PolandLUCIEN BROWN is a research fellow in the Centre of Korean Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, UK CHRISTINE CHRISTIE Lecturer in English at Loughborough University, UK KAREN GRAINGER currently senior lecturer in communication at Sheffield Hallam University, UKGU, YUEGUO Research Professor, and the Head of the Contemporary Linguistics Department at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, People's Republic of China SANDRA HARRIS Professor Emeritus at Nottingham Trent University, UKDR. ZOHAR KAMPF Lecturer at the department of Communication and Journalism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel LOUISE MULLANY Associate Professor of Sociolinguistics in the School of English Studies, University of Nottingham, UK EVA OGIERMANN Lecturer in intercultural communication at the University of Surrey, UK MANANA RUSIESHVILI Full Professor and Head of the English Department and coordinator of Western Philology at Tbilisi State University and President of English Teachers' Association of GeorgiaMARIA SIFIANOU Professor at the University of Athens, Greece MALGORZATA SUSZCZY?SKA teaches sociopragmatics and conversational analysis at the University of Szeged, Hungary YASUHISA WATANABE Lecturer in Japanese at University of Melbourne, Australia

Foreword; C.Christie Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction: Politeness Research in and across Cultures; D.Z.Kádár& F.Bargiela-Chiappini PART I Some Issues with the Concept of Face: When, What, How and How Much?; J.O'Driscoll On the Concept of Face and Politeness; M.Sifianou PART II Im/politeness, Rapport Management and Workplace Culture: Truckers Performing Masculinities on Canadian Ice-Roads; L.Mullany Why are Israeli Children Better at Settling Disputes than Israeli Politicians?; Z.Kampf& S.Blum-Kulka Korean Honorifics and 'Revealed', 'Ignored', and Suppressed' Aspects of Korean Culture and Politeness; L.Brown Modern Chinese Politeness Revisited; Y.Gu Modes of Address between Female Staff in Georgian Professional Discourse: Medical and Academic Contexts; M.Rusieshvili PART III Indirectness in Zimbabwean English: A Study of Intercultural Communication in the UK; K.Grainger On (Im)Politeness Behind the Iron Curtain; E.Ogiermann& M.Suszczyn?ska Conflict, Culture and Face; Y.Watanabe Cultural Variability in Face Interpretation and Management; E.Bogdanowska-Jakubowska Epilogue: S.Harris Index of Names Index of Topics