Drawing on a wide range of empirical data, the volume presents a thorough discussion of impoliteness and power in language. It addresses the enormous imbalance that exists between academic interest in politeness phenomena when compared to impoliteness phenomena, and it offers inspiration for research on impoliteness, conflict and aggression in many different academic fields of enquiry, both within linguistics and beyond.

This collection is dedicated to the notions of 'norms' and 'standards' in connection with the English language. Its chapters cover topics such as the norms we orient to in social interaction, the benchmark employed in teaching, or the development of English dialects and varieties over time and space and their relation to the standard language. The notions of standards and norms are equally important concepts for historical linguists, sociolinguists with a variationist background, applied linguists, pragmaticians and discourse analysts.