“This empirical data-rich book provides a helpful contribution to the field of cross-cultural pragmatics … . It succeeds in deepening readers’ understanding of the linguistic features of EL … . Its exploration into the speech acts of persuasion and comforting enriches the study of language elasticity. The evidence-based findings of the book bring far-reaching insights … . Those who take an interest in contrastive pragmatics, language stretching, VL/EL, and cross-cultural communication will find the book valuable and beneficial.” (Shuangshuang Lu, Journal of Pragmatics, Vol. 187, 2022)