Jacob Mey has an extensive and truly global network of international contacts and is Editor in Chief of one of Elsevier's most successful linguistics journals - The Journal of Pragmatics. Unlike other festschrifts whereby the contributors are asked to contribute any paper related to the festschriftee's interests or research fields, the contents of the Festschrift have been carefully thought through in order that each contributor will contribute to a discussion of the future prospects of pragmatics. Though grounded in empirical work, the papers should provide a general perspective on pragmatics in such a way that, while appreciating Jacob Mey's work for pragmatics, they also give directions for further developments of the field.