ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part focuses on the linguistic aspects of bilingualism. It outlines two broad types of code-switching: insertional and alternational. The part evaluates existing theoretical models of code-switching by applying and adapting standard grammatical theories to the issue of equivalence. It examines the empirical basis for the ‘fused system hypothesis’. The part offers new data from speech perception studies, arguing that young bilingual children are able to differentiate two languages from the earliest stages of bilingual development, and that they can use their two languages in contextually sensitive ways. It addresses the developmental aspect of code-switching. Early code-switching in very young children depends on knowledge of the grammatical properties of the language involved. The formulation of grammatical constraints needs to have cross-linguistic validity, and the acquisition of such constraints needs to take into account the linguistic development of the child in both languages.
