Abstract
The volume offers a comprehensive examination in speech in English and Spanish, exploring how mitigation is defined and theorized, and the various linguistic features employed to soften or downgrade communication. Building on a body of work done on mitigation in English and Spanish, the book begins by discussing how this phenomenon has been conceptualized in the literature drawing in part from Politeness Theory, among other perspectives. The volume explores authentic examples of mitigation from a variety of discursive settings, and it examines the linguistic behavior of native and bilingual speakers of Spanish and English. The book also discusses the pedagogical implications, those related to the teaching of mitigation to non-native speakers. The text is of particular interests to scholars and researchers of sociolinguistics and pragmatics, and to language teaching professionals.