Over the past thirty years, many studies within English historical linguistics have adopted approaches drawing from sociolinguistics and pragmatics in order to investigate what texts from the past can tell us about the conveying of communicative intentions and stance, and about their codification, in older English. One interesting perspective is dialogue studies, in which the relationship between fictive characters, or that between writer and reader, is analysed (socio)pragmatically in order to highlight the way in which interaction dynamics was reproduced and interpreted at different stages of the English language and culture. This volume is meant as a contribution towards this research field, both as a testimony of the mature stage reached by such studies and, hopefully, as a prompt for future developments in this area.
The first part of the volume examines dialogic elements in literary texts, while the second is dedicated to non-literary text-types, including studies on scientific, didactic, technical and legal texts. From Shakespearean to textbook dialogues; from the rhetoric of letter writing to that of philosophical controversy; from gender-specific features of dramatic dialogue to the dynamics of trial proceedings, the articles in this volume all demonstrate the wide range and lively condition of historical dialogue studies within English linguistics.

Gabriella Mazzon is full professor of English Linguistics at the University of Innsbruck. Her research interests include English historical linguistics, historical pragmatics, sociolinguistics, varieties of English. Among her latest major publications, Interactive Dialogue Sequences in Middle English Drama (John Benjamins, 2009).
Luisanna Fodde is full professor of English and Linguistics at Cagliari University where she also directs the University Language Centre. Her research interests include sociolinguistics, ESP, teaching methodology, discourse and genre analysis for academic and professional purposes. She has published extensively on the above topics.