In this paper, we show how some proposals within the Minimalist Program are compatible with a model of codeswitching that recognizes an asymmetry between the participating languages, the Matrix Language Frame model. Through our discussion of an analysis of NPs in a Spanish–English corpus, we illustrate this compatibility and show how recent minimalist proposals can explain the distribution of nouns and determiners in this data set if they adopt the notion of Matrix Language as the bilingual instantiation of structural uniformity in a CP. We outline the central premises of the Matrix Language Frame model, and introduce the Uniform Structure Principle which requires that the structure of constituents be uniform at an abstract level. We then review previous applications of the Minimalist Program to codeswitching.Much recent research in minimalism has focused on issues related to feature checking. Earlier approaches to feature checking required matching of features in grammatical structures, although more recent proposals consider distinctions in the values of features and in types of matching. Because phi-features for grammatical gender in Spanish and English differ, an analysis of NPs in this corpus of naturally occurring Spanish–English conversations provides a test for minimalist applications to codeswitching. We present our general findings of the distribution of types of NP constituents and then consider explanations of these distributions in light of minimalist proposals. It is possible to explain these distributions in a recasting of the Matrix Language Frame model in minimalist terms, if the construct of the Matrix Language is maintained. The requirement that one language, the Matrix Language, provide an abstract grammatical frame in bilingual constituents corresponds to the type of uniformity that Chomsky (2001) suggests is necessary for the explanatory study of language and variation in language.

The social forces affecting the performance of codeswitching (CS) may be distinguished from those factors controlling its basic structure, with which they interact. The constraints on possible patterns in CS are largely under innately based controls. These constraints are presented here in a model of intrasentential CS, and their validity is tested against findings of CS practices in a number of communities; all options can be accounted for under the model. Thus the options for CS structures seem universally set; but community-specific or group-specific social forces may determine which permissible patterns are preferred. In addition, micro-level, discourse-based factors may prompt individuals to produce certain CS structures. A second model of the social motivations for CS helps explain both the macro-and micro-level preferences. (Bilingualism, codeswitching, language contact, socio-pragmatics)* At first glance, the structural "mix" of languages in codeswitching (hereafter CS) seems very diverse. Furthermore, many speakers who frequently engage in CS become rugged individualists when they report on their own CS performance, insisting that their form of CS is a law unto itself. Yet a search for universally valid constraints marks much of the extensive research on CS in the last 10 years.Nevertheless, counterexamples to far-reaching claims, rather than support, prevailed at the end of the 1980s. This state of affairs has stimulated two types of responses. Bentahila & Davies (1992:444) argue that the effects of social and psychological factors on structural patterns have been neglected:The reason why the search for universal constraints has not been more successful, we suspect, is that it has tended to focus almost exclusively on the syntactic dimension of code-switching, treating switching patterns as purely structural phenomena rather than setting them within a social and psychological context . . . In particular, we feel that more attention should be

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This paper presents empirical evidence supporting a new model of morpheme classification called the 4-M model. This model emphasizes the notion that lemmas underlying different types of morphemes become salient at different levels of production. This explains their different distributions. While the 4-M model classifies morphemes, it is primarily a model of how morphemes are accessed. The argument is that particular instantiations of morphemes are classified as a consequence of the mechanisms that activate them. The evidence considered comes from studies of code switching, Broca's aphasia, and second-language acquisition. One finding that the 4-M model captures is that not all functional elements pattern alike. Some are conceptually activated at the level of the mental lexicon along with their contentmorpheme heads. Two other types of functional element are structurally assigned and do not become salient until later in the production process. These differences explain their different distributions in the data considered.

Although the methodologies for describing many types of linguistic variation have been well developed, satisfactory theoretical links between data and explanation – especially links that include causal mechanisms – remain lacking. This article argues, somewhat paradoxically, that even though most choices reflect some societal pattern, speakers make linguistic choices as individuals. That is, choices ultimately lie with the individual and are rationally based. Rational Choice Models (e.g. Elster 1979, 1989, 1997) provide explanatory mechanisms for the ways actors in society select from alternative structures and available options. The Rational Choice approach taken here is enhanced by diverse theories of human action (e.g. Damasio 1996, Klein 1998, Lessig 1995). Analysis of codeswitching examples within a recasting of the Markedness Model (Myers-Scotton, e.g. 1993, 1998) suggests how a rationally based model offers better explanations for linguistic variation than do other approaches.