A new title in the Routledge Major Works series, Critical Concepts in Linguistics, Pragmatics II is a four-volume collection of the very best scholarship on pragmatics. It is an essential successor collection to the editor’s Pragmatics (6 vols.) (978-0-415-11734-0), published in 1998 and described by The Linguist List as ‘essential background reading for students of pragmatics and new researchers in the pragmatics of language’. Pragmatics has experienced dramatic growth since its first flourishing early in the twentieth century. Pragmatics (1998) was the first comprehensive collection of the field’s canonical and cutting-edge research, and this new collection now takes full account of the many important developments that have taken place since its appearance. Pragmatics II also includes coverage of areas without the scope of the first collection, including sections on ‘Silence’ and ‘Typology’. With a full index, together with a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, Pragmatics II is an indispensable work of reference. It is destined to be valued by scholars, students, and researchers as a vital research resource.