ABSTRACT
Linguistic pragmatics recognizes that communication is not simply achieved through syntactic and lexical means, but that context, both linguistic and non-linguistic, is a central part of what and how human beings communicate. This chapter explores how meaning-making and interpretation are understood in intercultural pragmatics and then discuss how intercultural mediation has come to be understood as a form of action within the field. Intercultural pragmatics has developed a particular take on mediation that reflects the needs of interlocutors to manage problems in meaning-making and interpretation locally as they occur in communication. Participants need not only to identify multiple possible interpretations of language in its linguistic and non-linguistic context but also consider how those potential meanings come into being for participants in communication and reflect on the ways that languages and cultures are consequential for meaning-making and interpretation. Mediation is thus an interpretative activity, based on reflection about languages, cultures, and meaning-making, and within this activity, metapragmatic awareness plays a key role.
