This paper attempts to depict a full picture of variational pragmatics, a newly-developed research field in pragmatics, with a focus on its origin and development, aims, issues and methods. Based on a detailed review of the literature, this paper summarizes the contributions and limitations of the existing studies, presents new directions on research topics and methods, and finally provides some suggestions for future research on variational pragmatics, i.e.,to enhance its theoretical value, introduce new topics, enrich research toolbox, include more genres and investigate the virtual space communication.