440 Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses Leo Hickey and Miranda Stewart (eds.) (2005): Politeness in Europe. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd., 334 pp. Reviewed by Victoria Guillen Nieto University of Alicante Back in the 1970spoliteness emerged as an área of linguistic interest (Lakoff, 1973,1975), but, admittedly, it was Brown and Levinson's pioneering formulation of politeness theory (1987 [1978]) which laid the ground for politeness research under a pragmalinguistic perspective, and despite attracting widespread criticism lately, in the opinión of many scholars it has provided the most comprehensive and influential account in the field so far, and widely contributed to the explosión of both intracultural and intercultural research over the last two decades. From this seminal work, it has become clear in Linguistic theory that people do not only speak to one another to transfer information {transactional function) or to do things to one another (Speech Act theory) but also to establish and maintain interpersonal relationships within a particular sociocultural context (interactional function). In recent publications it has also become evident that the way people use language to interact with others is not universal but culture- and language-specific and so, relational communication may vary considerably from one country to another. (Cf. Wierzbicka, 1985,1991; Matsumoto, 1988; Spencer-Oatey, 2004[2000]). On the basis that different European societies probably shape socio-cultural distance in different ways, Politeness in Europe aims to give a broad picture of politeness practices across twenty-two of the countries in Europe, and to engage in some of the theoretical debates at the heart of interactional pragmatics. The editors of this volume, Hickey and Stewart, who provide an all-embracing introduction to the latest research in the field, are conscious of the fact that the concept of politeness is problematic, uncertain and confusing, but much more so is the concept of Europe which the aufhors define as "[...] a loóse geographical grouping which is, however, in continuous flux but with political considerationsbroughtintoexplain some of the boundaries" (p. 10). Allinall, the editors have opted to present the chapters in broad geographical groupings, Le. Western Europe (Germany, France, Belgium, Luxemburg, TheNetherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Britain and Ireland), Northern Europe (Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland), Eastern Europe (Estonia, Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic), and Southern Europe (Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Portugal and Spain). Written by some of today's most prominent European scholars in the field of interactional pragmatics, the twenty-two chapters making up this volume seem to follow a basic analytical pattern in the presentation and development of the ideas. Firstly, mainstream politeness theories, essentially those formulated inthe English-speaking world (Brown and Levinson, 1987; Leech, 1983, etc.), are reviewed or, otherwise, some historical background is provided in order to help the reader understand the politeness practices that are in use in a particular nation. Secondly, in some cases, alternative formulations and refinements to Politeness theory are made. Thirdly, these new views are