Frontmatter -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- Chapter 1. Introduction: semantics and pragmatics -- Chapter 2. Different cultures, different languages, different speech acts -- Chapter 3. Cross-cultural pragmatics and different cultural values -- Chapter 4. Describing conversational routines -- Chapter 5. Speech acts and speech genres across languages and cultures -- Chapter 6. The semantics of illocutionary forces -- Chapter 7. Italian reduplication: its meaning and its cultural significance -- Chapter 8. Interjections across cultures -- Chapter 9. Particles and illocutionary meanings -- Chapter 10. Boys will be boys: even 'truisms' are culture- specific -- Chapter 11. Conclusion: semantics as a key to cross-cultural pragmatics -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Subject and name index -- Index of words and phrases -- Backmatter