CODE-SWITCHING

Abstract

This article investigates code-switching as a systematic bilingual practice shaped by interactional goals and sociolinguistic constraints. The study aims to integrate structural and pragmatic perspectives in order to explain when and why speakers alternate languages within a single communicative event. Methodologically, it applies qualitative discourse analysis to a small corpus of naturally occurring bilingual conversations collected from urban university contexts, complemented by a rule-based linguistic annotation of switch types and their sequential positions. The scientific novelty lies in proposing an integrative analytical model that links switch placement to turn-taking organization, stance marking, and domain-sensitive lexical choice, while also specifying how morphosyntactic compatibility limits switching opportunities. The findings clarify how code-switching functions both as a resource for meaning-making and as an index of contextual alignment, offering implications for bilingual education and for the description of emerging urban bilingual norms.