The notion of a 'language of immediacy and language of distance' by Peter Koch and Wulf Oesterreicher has been widely applied since its initial publication in 1985, especially in the field of German Linguistics. This edited volume documents the approach's discussion in the areas of Variational Linguistics, Language History and Media Theory. Also, the book provides theorectical explanations as to why the concept continues to be so successful.

Helmuth Feilke and Mathilde Hennig, University of Gießen, Germany.