This is a collection of papers prepared within the framework of the research project Communications, Contacts and Barriers in Different Cultures and Regions of Europe and Africa (IFSC / IZV, Charles University, Prague, Grant Agency of the Czech Republic Project No 403/96/0787). The major part of the papers published within this volume was presented either at the international workshop Language and its Stratification in Space and Time held in Prague in 1996, or at various disciplinary (linguistic) and multidisciplinary (sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic) round-tables organized in 1996 and 1997 by this research group in cooperation with the Charles University and the Prague Linguistic Circle. The multidisciplinary character of the project offered even outlooks in philosophical and cognitive aspects of the linguistic expression of existence and its location in space and time. That is why the present volume was prepared in cooperation with a philosopher and a participant from the Max Planck Institute for Sociolinguistics. As several authors ofthe present team are also members of the Groupement de RechercheEurop\233en No 1172 of the Centre National de la RechercheScientifique (Paris)