The is the first volume of two but can stand alone. It is a fittingly solid, well-illustrated, theoretical account of Mitigation (as form of Politeness). The main goal of this book is to present a new integrated pragmatic approach to communication. The approach has been called ‘pragmatics of identity’. Its major feature is that it aims at integrating pragmatic views (research on politeness, face-work, etc.) with insights from different research fields into an extended framework where psychological aspects of communication in context also can be taken into account.