Recent years have seen a surge in interest in formal pragmatics, particularly the application of game theory as a research methodology for language use. Game and Decision Theory (GDT) serve as a strong theoretical foundation for linguistic pragmatics. An interdisciplinary research community has developed, uniting economists, philosophers, social scientists, and linguists. Within this field, three main currents can be identified: one aligns with the Gricean paradigm, focusing on a precise foundation for pragmatic reasoning; the second stems from economic literature, examining game theory's role in language use; and the third explores language evolution from biological or cultural perspectives. This volume, edited in collaboration with FoLLI, is based on selected papers from two international conferences—one at ESSLLI in 2007 on language, games, and evolution, and the other at ZAS in Berlin in 2008 on games and decisions in pragmatics. It includes additional invited papers and features eight articles from leading researchers, offering a comprehensive survey of current research on language evolution and game-theoretic approaches to pragmatics.
