This user-friendly introduction to a new 'performative' methodology in linguistic pragmatics breaks away from the traditional approach which understands language as a machine, operating behind the scenes without human intent. Drawing on a wide spectrum of research and theory from the past thirty years in particular, Douglas Robinson presents a combination of 'action-oriented approaches' from sources such as J.L. Austin, H. Paul Grice, Harold Garfinkel and Erving Goffman. This timely work brings these new approaches and methodologies together for the first time and expands them to present a new performative paradigm. Paying particular attention to language as drama, the group regulation of language use, individual resistance to these regulatory pressures and nonverbal communication, the work also explains groundbreaking concepts and analytical models, most notably 'conversational invocature' covering allusion and anticipatory completion. With a key points section, discussion questions and exercises in every chapter, this book will be an extremely useful resource to students and teachers on a variety of courses, including linguistic pragmatics, sociolinguistics and interpersonal communication.