The 13 chapters in this compilation are concerned with the notion of context for situated discourse and with the creative charachter of indexical signs. The introduction surveys theoretical precursors and examines the mutually reflexive relationship between context and talk. The following chapters deal with: referential demonstratives; language in and as context; context construction, negotiation and contest; contextualization (cues); context and conversation analysis; interpenetration of communicative contexts; indexing gender; tradition and the dialogue of genres; radio talk show therapy and the pragmatics of possible worlds; and repair in courtroom discourse.