Acknowledgements

I am grateful to all the scholars and friends who discussed questions of science and dialogue with me in nearly all periods of my academic life. I would like to mention especially Franz Hundsnurscher (Münster), my teacher and life-long friend, who introduced me to the field of action, decades ago. He succeeded in convincing me to leave modern linguistics of structuralism and generative grammar restricted to ‘language’ and focus on the ‘use of language’ in dialogic action.

Franz and I liked to discuss our views on dialogue as action not only in the period when we agreed on a rule-governed concept but also when I changed my view from competence to competence-in-performance. Together with Sorin Stati (Bologna), we were united in the idea of language-as-dialogue which led us to found IADA, the International Association of Dialogue Analysis. Addressing dialogue from the point of view of performance even led me to cross the boundary of the humanities and to envision the concept of New Science which unites natural and human sciences.

I am also grateful to many others I was lucky to meet on various occasions, during the IADA conferences but also outside in discussions with scholars of pragmatics, to mention in particular Istvan Kecskes (Albany). Both of us share some basic ideas, mainly that the key to the otherwise unstructured field of language use is dialogue. I also remember František Daneš (Prague) and his open-minded attitude in various linguistic issues, and Gabriella Valera (Trieste) who was standing up for the right to dialogue. I would also like to thank the young scientists who contacted me from all over the world. Their refreshing ideas confirm that the time of closed patterns has passed.

Other scholars I am much indebted to are natural scientists. Unfortunately I never met them personally, but their ideas confirm what I have arrived at by general reasoning. I am only mentioning Edward O. Wilson, Ilya Prigogine, Paul Nurse and Richard P. Feynman. Consilience seems possible although the way to achieve it is tricky and demands effort and commitment.

I am also thankful to Mike Pincombe (Erlangen) who as native speaker refined my English phrasing. Moreover, I am grateful to Răzvan Săftoiu who over years helped me in editorial questions. I would also like to extend a cordial thank you to Isja Conen and the John Benjamins Publishing Company for useful advice in the production process. Last but not least, I would like to thank Luigi for his stimulating remarks on central issues.