Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1 Understanding common ground -- The interdependence of common ground and context -- Understanding common ground as a cognitive object -- From laboratory to real life: Obstacles in common ground building -- Presupposition failures and the negotiation of the common ground -- 2 Emergent common ground -- Grounding emergent common ground: Detecting markers of emergent common ground in a YouTube discussion thread -- Co-constructing emergent common ground: The role of the intercultural mediator -- The co-construction of common ground through exemplars unique to an ESL classroom -- 3 Common ground building -- Mutual knowledge and the 'hidden common ground': An interdisciplinary perspective on mutual understanding in intercultural communication -- The linguistic code as basis for common ground building in English as a foreign language -- ELF disagreement as an interactional resource for doing interculturality -- 4 Common ground in different discourses -- Working offline: Common ground in written discourse -- Metapragmatic expressions as common ground builders in intercultural business communication -- Harmony and common ground: Aikido principles for intercultural training -- Contributors to this volume -- Index