ABSTRACT
THE EXTENSIVE LITERATURE ON bilingualism illustrates a range of (sometimes interdisciplinary) approaches to code-switching behaviour, some of which seem rather distant from the primarily social one which we shall present here. However, we would suggest that an adequate account of the social and situational context of code-switching behaviour is an important prerequisite even where the perspective of the researcher is (for example) psycholinguistic rather than social. This article attempts to develop a coherent account of the relationship between code-switching and language choice by individual speakers, and of the relation of both to the broader social, economic and political context. The exposition is presented both in general terms which emphasise its applicability to a range of bilingual situations, and with specific reference to the example of the bilingual Chinese-English-speaking community in Tyneside, north-eastern England.
