This volume has been designed to capture the latest views in the field of codeswitching research. A state-of-the-art document, CODESWITCHING WORLDWIDE aims at stressing the notion that the alternation of codes in bilingual discourse is more than a random phenomenon occurring now in one language and then in the other. The contributions focus, among others, on the relationship between codeswitching and language shift, the notion of language alternation as opposed to intrasentential codeswitching, the question of universal validity of constraints potentially blocking the speaker's switching processes, the nature of the proposed Matrix Language Frame Model with special emphasis on the complement phrase CP, the stand-alone principle as well as the codeswitching/borrowing dimension. The core of the studies included in this volume is based on papers that were presented at the XIII World Congress of Sociology, held in 1994 at the University of Bielefeld, Germany. Contents: Rodolfo Jacobson, Introduction * SECTION 1 GENERAL ISSUES AND NEW FRONTIERS * Hendrik Boeschoten, Codeswitching, codemixing, and code alternation: What a difference * Abdelali Bentahila and Eirlys E. Davies, Codeswitching: An unequal partnership? * Rodolfo Jacobson, Conveying a broader message through bilingual discourse: An attempt at Contrastive Codeswitching research * SECTION 2 LANGUAGE NORMS AND MODELS AND HOW TO DESCRIBE THEM * Delia Haust and Norbert Dittmar, Taxonomic or functional models in the description of codeswitching? Evidence from Mandinka and Wolof in African contact situations * Carol Myers-Scotton, Structural uniformities vs. community differences in codeswitching * Shoji Azuma, Meaning and form in code-switching * Erica McClure, The relationship between form and function in written national language-English codeswitching: Evidence from Mexico, Spain and Bulgaria * SECTION 3 PATTERNS AND STYLES IN CODESWITCHING * Li Wei, Banana split? Variations in language choice and code-switching patterns of two groups of British-born Chinese in Tyneside * Jeanine Treffers-Daller, Variability in code-switching styles: Turkish-German code-switching patterns * SECTION 4 THE HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: GENETICS AND LANGUAGE SHIFT * Rajeshwari V. Pandharipande, Is genetic connection relevant in code-switching? Evidence from South Asian languages * Rosita Rindler Schjerve, Codeswitching as an indicator for language shift? Evidence from Sardinian-Italian bilingualism * Bibliography * Index