This volume includes 14 papers investigating politeness phenomena in Greece and Turkey, the cultural cross-roads of Europe, Asia and the Middle East. It reflects current research and provides observations of and findings in patterns of linguistic politeness in a geographical area other than the much studied English speaking ones. Articles in the collection are empirically rather than theoretically oriented and examine realisations of politeness in relation to social parameters. The chapters have been arranged in pairs (Greek/Turkish), treating the following related issues: firstly a more general ethnographic picture of the two societies, the variables of power/status in classroom and other interaction, solidarity in advice-giving and the use of approbatory expressions, service encounters and the differential use of language by males and females, the use of interruptions in television talk, and finally compliments.