Code Switching, the alternating use of two or more languages ation, has become an increasingly topical and important field of research. Now available in paperback, Code-Switching in Conversation brings together contributions from a wide variety of sociolinguistics settings in which the phenomenon is observed. It addresses not only the structure and the function, but also the ideological values of such bilingual behaviour. The contributors question many views of code switching on the empirical basis of many European and non European contexts. By bringing together linguistics, anthropological and socio-psychological research, they move towards a more realistic conception of bilingual conversation action.

Most societies in today's world are multilingual. 'Language contact' occurs when speakers of different languages interact and their languages influence each other. This book is an introduction to the subject, covering individual and societal multilingualism, the acquisition of two or more languages from birth, second language acquisition in adulthood, language change, linguistic typology, language processing and the structure of the language faculty. It explains the effects of multilingualism on society and language policy, as well as the consequences that long-term bilingualism within communities can have for the structure of languages. Drawing on the author's own first-hand observations of child and adult bilingualism, the book provides a clear analysis of such phenomena as language convergence, grammatical borrowing, and mixed languages.

Mars and Venus head to work... Day-to-day, face-to-face workplace communication between men and women is often dysfunctional because each gender employs different speech pat­terns. When careers and paychecks are on the line, clear communication is crucial-from the mailroom to the boardroom. Code Switching explains what to say, how to say it, how to be taken seriously, and how to act while speaking with the opposite sex for maximum effectiveness in the workplace. Included are: •How men and women manage conversation, and the value of "chitchat" prior to a meeting. •How men use language to impart information and women use language to build or indicate rela­tionship. •How men use e-mail to emphasize control while women use it to share and build rapport. •How women can use language to build their credibility. •How humor is used as a power play, to build ter­ritory, or to exclude others. •How gender talk creates and shapes work rela­tionships.

An interdisciplinary overview of code-switching, whereby bilingual speakers switch between different languages or language varieties.

The volume will be of central interest to anyone concerned with communication in the fields of interethnic or industrial relations.

The most comprehensive overview available, this Handbook is an essential guide to sociolinguistics today. Reflecting the breadth of research in the field, it surveys a range of topics and approaches in the study of language variation and use in society. As well as linguistic perspectives, the handbook includes insights from anthropology, social psychology, the study of discourse and power, conversation analysis, theories of style and styling, language contact and applied sociolinguistics. Language practices seem to have reached new levels since the communications revolution of the late twentieth century. At the same time face-to-face communication is still the main force of language identity, even if social and peer networks of the traditional face-to-face nature are facing stiff competition of the Facebook-to-Facebook sort. The most authoritative guide to the state of the field, this handbook shows that sociolinguistics provides us with the best tools for understanding our unfolding evolution as social beings.

Code-switching and related phenomena have met with linguists' increasing interest over the last decade. However, much of the research has been restricted to the structural (grammatical) properties of the use of two languages in conversation; scholars who have tried to capture the interactive meaning of switching have often failed to go beyond more or less anecdotal descriptions of individual, particularly striking, cases. The book bridges this gap by providing a coherent, comprehensive and generative model for language alternation, drawing on recent trends and methods in conversational analysis. The empirical basis is the speech of Italian migrant children in Constance, Germany.