The social context of language is key to its meaning: it governs how discourse is perceived. This book takes that as its basis and offers a rich and powerful way to analyze language and its meaning, across a range of domains. The emphasis is on social motives, functions and contexts, and the book throughout connects theory to real-life issues. Using a diverse, non-technical framework, the book looks at how meaning in use is naturally dynamic, complex and connected. Meaning is always embedded in communication. It brings several disciplines together, from discourse analysis to systemic functional linguistics, from cognitive to corpus linguistics. Bob Hodge assumes no prior linguistic knowledge and the book will be valuable to students across a range of subjects. Throughout, there is an emphasis on real-life examples that highlight the actual, complex nature of language in society and discourse in action.