Although the large Hispanic community of Los Angeles is basically a geographically stable urban community, bound by historical, social, linguistic, and cultural factors, both its boundaries and its internal structure are impermanent and undergoing constant change.

In this original study of Spanish-English bilinguals in Los Angeles County, Carmen Silva-Corvalán explores in depth the linguistic, cognitive, and social processes underlying language maintenance, as well as changes characteristic of language shift and loss. She brings together analytical techniques employed in sociolinguistics, functional syntax, and discourse analysis.