“Birner has made an impressive attempt at simplifying the field of pragmatics and connecting it with real-life situations, unprecedentedly foregrounding its great potential in coming to terms with social issues. Thus, the value of Introduction to Pragmatics goes beyond the audience-borders set by the author and the publisher. All pragmaticians, applied linguists, stylisticians, sociolinguists and other scholars who are interested in the way language behaves in society should find the book an asset.”  (Discourse Studies, 13 May 2015) “Birner’s Introduction to Pragmatics offers graduate students and upper-level undergraduates an accessible introduction that addresses the traditional range of topics within pragmatics through real-life examples.”  (The Modern Language Journal, 10 November 2014) “...this book achieves success and relevancy in ways where other texts fall short." (The LINGUIST List, 9 July 2013)