Historical pragmatics is an empirical field of study focusing on language use and meaning-making practices in past contexts. The aim of historical pragmatics is to discover and describe patterns of pragmatic language use with the ultimate aim of finding explanations to both synchronic variation in past periods and to changes in a diachronic perspective (Taavitsainen 2012). The sociohistorical context is essential for reaching these ambitious goals. Texts can be related to their authors and audiences, writers and readers, and various aspects can be highlighted according to the research questions. Texts can be anchored to background sociohistorical developments such as changes in the media, literacy practices, and underlying intellectual commitments as they reflect on the linguistic features of language use. Another recent definition of historical pragmatics states that it studies “patterns of human interaction (as determined by the conditions of society) of earlier periods, the historical developments of these patterns, and the general principles underlying such developments” (Jucker 2008: 895). This definition is even more explicitly tied to the broad European view of pragmatics, according to which the sociohistorical context is necessarily taken into account in the analysis and there is no need for a separate label “sociopragmatics” (Culpeper 2009: 179). This branch is also called the “perspective view” as it holds that all language use can be viewed with pragmatic lenses. Intonation is important in conveying meanings in spoken language, but likewise punctuation in written language, especially in historical texts, can alter meanings. Morphology has not been much discussed from the pragmatic angle, but there is potential on this level as well. Syntax has received more attention, and the interface between semantics and pragmatics is increasingly prominent in research. The concept of context is important in pragmatics with several different aspects to be taken into account. We can proceed from the narrow linguistic cotext to the contexts of the situation of writing, activity type and genre, from microlevel analysis to the macrolevel of cultural context of the time and place. The core challenge posed to the historical pragmatician is to examine how meanings are negotiated in various contexts and how the background factors influence these practices in a subtle way