Acknowledgements

The idea for this volume originated in a panel organised by Annick Paternoster and Marcel Bax on historical sociopragmatic change for the 14th Conference of the International Pragmatics Association, Antwerp, July 2015. The panel, Towards a Diachrony of Relational Work: Factors behind Sociopragmatic Change in 18th and 19th century Europe, had as discussant Jonathan Culpeper. The current volume brings together five of the papers from the original panel as well as one additional contribution. As Marcel Bax, sadly, had to withdraw for personal reasons, Annick Paternoster invited Susan Fitzmaurice, one of the panellists, to act as co-editor.

We thank all the authors who contributed to this volume for the enthusiasm with which they embraced this collaborative research. We would also like to acknowledge the aid of the team of colleagues who kindly assisted by peer-reviewing the chapters of this volume, including (in alphabetical order) Marianna Chodorowska Pilch, Sara Cigada, Jonathan Culpeper, Jane Demmen, Marina Dossena, Matteo Fuoli, Peter Grund, Dániel Kádár and Katrin Schlund. Finally, we would like to express our gratitude to the editor of Pragmatics and Beyond New Series of John Benjamins for supporting our work.

This book is one of the outcomes of a research project on the topic of politeness in nineteenth-century Italy (The reasons for politeness. The birth of contemporary politeness in the behavioural treatises of 19th century Italy, SNSF nr. 100012_153031) and Annick Paternoster wishes to thank the Swiss National Science Foundation for financing her work on the volume.