Review of Pragmatics : A Multidisciplinary Perspective , Louise Cummings . Edinburgh University Press , 2005 , 336 pp . , ISBN : 0 - 7486 - 1682 - 9 Action editor : Stefan Wermter

This book makes the case that the relatively new field of pragmatics has an inherently multidisciplinary nature, with strong relationships with other fields of study including, among others, philosophy, linguistics, psychology, cognitive science, artificial intelligence and language pathology. Cummings argues convincingly that the study of pragmatics should be influenced by, and has much to offer to, those related disciplines. After outlining the basic concepts and theories of pragmatics in Chapter 1, she explores its interdisciplinary relationships in subsequent chapters. The book contains an extensive bibliography and a comprehensive index. Pragmatics can be defined briefly as ‘‘the context-dependent assignment of meaning to language expressions used in acts of speaking and writing’’ (Allan, 2001, p. 4). More fully,