Book reviews I Journal of Pragmatics 22 (1994) 219-237 221 Labov, William, 1966. The social stratification of English in New York City. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics. Milroy, Lesley, 1980. Language and social networks. Oxford: Blackwell. [2nd ed. 1987.1 SSDI 0378.2166(93)E0093-F zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA Maria Sifianou, Politeness phenomena in England and Greece: A cross-cultural perspective. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992. 254 pp. UK& 30.00 (hardcover). Reviewed by Bent Preisler and Hartmut Haberland, Department of Languages and Culture, Roskilde University, P.O. Box 260, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark. For about fifteen years, politeness has been one of the most important and pro- ductive areas of research in pragmatics and sociolinguistics. Its importance in terms of cross-cultural communication is obvious, and comparative studies of the concep- tualization and manifestations of politeness in different cultures must therefore be regarded as vital in an era of growing internationalization. The book under review is an example of such a study, applying Brown and Levinson’s (1978) politeness the- ory to a comparison of social interaction in England and Greece. Discussing a wide range of linguistic and pragmatic characteristics of English and Greek, the author finds that Greeks tend to use more ‘positive’ politeness (expressions of friendliness and solidarity) than the English, who are more oriented toward the ‘negative’ type (mitigation of impositions, expressions of formality). She also deals with the extent to which politeness should be considered a universal concept, and with politeness as a potential source of intercultural miscommunication. She concludes that, although the manifestations of politeness may be culture-specific, no nation can objectively be said to be more polite than another. She emphasizes the importance of including cul- ture-specific aspects of politeness in the syllabus of the foreign-language classroom. After the presentation of her data (see below) in chapter 1, there follows an overview and critical discussion of pragmatic theories relevant to the concept of politeness in chapter 2. The last section of the chapter is 5 2.5.1 on ‘Greek culture and the notion of face’, which leaves one wondering why there is no Q 2.5.2 on Eng- lish culture/face, or why the title of Q 25.1 is not ‘Greek and English . ..‘. seeing that it does contain some contrastive passages. Chapter 3 is concerned with the question of the universality of politeness. Although as a general concept it is found to be uni- versal, various examples show that culture-specific conceptions of politeness can be discerned at all levels of the linguistic system. This chapter also contains a discus- sion of social deixis and forms of address, as the most direct manifestations of cul- turally determined social relationships. In chapter 4, on ‘Perceptions of politeness’, the author offers her own definition of politeness as a universal concept: “the set of social values which instructs interactants to consider each other by satisfying shared expectations” (p. 86). Partly on the basis of informants’ responses to questionnaires, she argues that it is a different set of social values for England and Greece.