Introduction

Language is one of the most uniquely human capacities that our species possesses, and one that is involved in all others, including consciousness, sociality and culture. We employ the symbolic systemof language tomakemeaning and communicatewith other fellow humans. We mean and communicate about immediate realities as well as about imagined and remembered worlds, about factual events as well as about intentions and desires. Through a repertoire of language choices, we can directly or indirectly make visible (or purposefully hide) our stance, judgement and emotions both towards the messages that we communicate and towards the addressees of those messages. In characteristically human behaviour, we use language not only to communicate to specific audiences, but sometimes to address ourselves rather than others, as in self-talk, and other times to address collective, unknown audiences, as when we participate in political speeches, religious sermons, internet navigation, commercial advertisements, newspaper columns or literary works.