This book features six case studies in linguistic pragmatics, ranging from speech acts in Shakespeare to fallacies in debates on the Bill of Rights and to the benefits of computer copora in studying collocations and null objections. All six case studies share an emphasis on the role of context in the interpretation of authentic texts. Case Studies in Linguistic Pragmatics develops new techniques of analysis and opens up a new research field by examining the input of pragmatics to the study of literature, history and language.