Using cultural scripts and semantic explications, the authors show how speech practices can be contextualised and understood in terms of the values, norms and beliefs of speakers themselves. These fascinating studies cover a gamut of culturally shaped ways of speaking from settings around the world – Australia, China, Colombia, Ghana, Japan, and Singapore. The book also serves as an introduction to powerful new techniques for pragmatic analysis which have emerged from 20 years of cross-linguistic semantic research. Key features: The book presents case studies from a diverse range of languages. It demonstrates how prevailing cultural attitudes, norms and beliefs can be modelled in a clear, precise and non-ethnocentric fashion.