On the one hand, cultural and scientific exchange, as well as migration and globalisation, cause contrastive linguistics to gain importance today while, on the other hand, contrastive linguistics must review its previous positions and partly redefine its objects of study. In view of these shifts, the volume examines contrastive linguistics thereby exploring its various aspects on a primarily empirical basis, and taking into account cultural-linguistic dimensions in selected research regions. Online communication and legal texts are considered, as are linguistic aspects of political debate and the phenomena of contemporary language. Furthermore, interlingual issues in foreign language didactics and translation research are also investigated.