Bilingual conversation strategies in Gibraltar

Bilingual conversations from Gibraltar are analysed and explained in relation to language choices at three levels of conversation organization. These choices are strategies available for communicating meaning available to speakers with a high level of proficiency in both English and Spanish. The first choice involves the selection of a main or dominant language for the entire conversation. The main language serves to frame the code-switching choices made at the other two levels of conversation organization. At an intermediate level participants can momentarily switch their language for a limited number of turns. Language negotiation between participants takes place at this level . Meanings related to inter-turn language choices are recuperated by a sequential analysis along the lines proposed by Auer ( 1 995) . At the lowest level, there are several intra­ sentential switch types within a turn that a speaker fluent in English and Spanish can choose. Such structural switches function as contextualization cues for the creation of the situated meaning .