This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides a useful scene-setter by arguing for the fundamental importance of a communication perspective for understanding human behaviour which is on a par with historical, economic, sociological analyses. It focuses on the importance of creating and maintaining shared meaning in the analysis of communication, and pay particular attention to the developmental-interactional processes by which children and adults learn to acquire the formal codes of language. The book discusses how the various speech cues of ethnicity, social class, and age affect attitudes and can lead to certain types of discriminatory behaviour. The complex reasons why a “social psychology of language” has never really gelled historically have been the topic of some debate in the literature. Methodologically, the social psychology of language utilizes, for the most part, the experimental method characteristic of general psychology.