In this chapter, the author, from the double perspective of ethology and neuropsychiatry, gives an interdisciplinary account of language through the lens of the neurosciences, interweaving diverse scientific discourses. Using phylogenetic and ontogenetic accounts, he describes the transition from sensory perception to symbolic representation in animals and humans, and the way neural circuitry of language coalesces through relating. He thus maps the processes and trajectories of the ‘word-making machine’, corroborated by studies of sensory or institutional deprivation or of illness, abuse, or accidents. Studies carried out on plurilingual speakers recovering from aphasia reveal that the Mother tongue, the most deeply imprinted language, is the one that comes back first. Experiments with newborn babies confirm the origin of the Mother tongue in tactile interuterine stimuli, which are later recognised by the newborn in the lower frequencies of the mother’s voice, creating ‘a reassuring bond of familiarity’. This interdisciplinary approach sheds light on the embedding of language in the body and on the enduring imprint of early language formation in the brain.

This chapter provides an introduction to the book. It starts with an introduction of readership, including all those who are interested in intercultural relations – in relating with people who have different national, linguistic, social, ethnic, religious or other backgrounds to ourselves. The focus, as the subtitle indicates, is therefore ‘relating across cultures’ – how people build, maintain and manage relations when communicating across group boundaries of various kinds, such as national, linguistic, ethnic. It then considers the two concepts within the main title of the book: ‘politeness’ and ‘intercultural’. It explains that we take a ‘relating’ perspective to politeness, and it offers a working definition of ‘culture’ as well as the notion of ‘intercultural’. The book takes an interdisciplinary approach, drawing together concepts and ideas from pragmatics, intercultural communication and cross-cultural and moral psychology, and we argue that such an interdisciplinary approach is vital for a topic like intercultural politeness. The chapter introduces the book's authors, providing some background to them, so that readers can understand the subjectivity of the authors' positions. The chapter also outlines the types of data the book uses throughout in support of its arguments. The chapter ends by briefly introducing the remaining chapters of the book.

Chapter 16 overviews the implications of the present book for future research on politeness. While politeness has been the focal point of the framework proposed in the book, it is important at the concluding stage to reflect on how this framework can advance research on politeness both inside and outside of the intercultural arena. The chapter considers in particular the following three questions: (1) what are the implications of the present book for research on relating? (2) How can the proposed framework advance understandings of the evaluation process through which politeness comes into existence? (3) What does the intercultural focus promoted in the book imply for politeness research?By investigating these questions, it is argued that present-day intercultural theory is capable of making an essential contribution in particular to these key areas of the politeness field. The chapter has three main sections: ‘performing’ relational management; understandings of the evaluation process; intercultural focus.