Bilingualism and Personality: A Cognitive-semiotic Approach
(2025) SPVR01 20251Master's Programme: Language and Linguistics
Cognitive Semiotics
- Abstract
- Previous research has shown that some bilinguals report feeling as though they have two different personalities in their different languages. For some this experience is stable, for others situational or linked to life stages, while many claim never to have felt it. Despite extensive research, there is no consensus on the topic, including on what exactly is meant by “personality” in the context. Such issues are difficult to address within trait-based approaches, as the phenomenon concerns subjective self-perception and contextual fluctuations – which are better explored qualitatively. With its rich ontology and pluralistic methodology, cognitive semiotics can here make an important contribution.
This thesis examines how Russian–Swedish... (More) - Previous research has shown that some bilinguals report feeling as though they have two different personalities in their different languages. For some this experience is stable, for others situational or linked to life stages, while many claim never to have felt it. Despite extensive research, there is no consensus on the topic, including on what exactly is meant by “personality” in the context. Such issues are difficult to address within trait-based approaches, as the phenomenon concerns subjective self-perception and contextual fluctuations – which are better explored qualitatively. With its rich ontology and pluralistic methodology, cognitive semiotics can here make an important contribution.
This thesis examines how Russian–Swedish bilinguals with high proficiency in Swedish experience themselves across their two languages, focusing on perceived personality differences and the factors shaping them. Adopting a cognitive-semiotic approach, it applies tools such as the conceptual–empirical loop, phenomenological triangulation, and the Semiotic Hierarchy, using phenomenological interviews as the method of data collection. The analysis identified three major categories: (a) perceived differences, (b) levels of experience, and (c) factors of change, with corresponding themes. The findings revealed a spectrum of experiences, from prosodic and communicative shifts to personality changes and the experience of being non-authentic in their second language, all aligned with Swedish linguistic and cultural patterns. Even participants reporting no change showed subtle shifts across linguistic, cultural, and bodily levels of self. Variation appeared both across individuals and over time, shaped by proficiency, social environment, and age. Overall, the study showed that bilingual selfhood cannot be reduced to a binary division of change versus stability, but rather it emerges as a dynamic, multilayered process in which body, language, and culture are co-constitutive. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9213085
- author
- Basalaeva, Natalia LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SPVR01 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- bilingualism, selfhood, personality, phenomenology, cognitive semiotics, Russian–Swedish bilinguals
- language
- English
- id
- 9213085
- date added to LUP
- 2025-09-24 15:24:36
- date last changed
- 2025-09-26 13:04:53
@misc{9213085,
abstract = {{Previous research has shown that some bilinguals report feeling as though they have two different personalities in their different languages. For some this experience is stable, for others situational or linked to life stages, while many claim never to have felt it. Despite extensive research, there is no consensus on the topic, including on what exactly is meant by “personality” in the context. Such issues are difficult to address within trait-based approaches, as the phenomenon concerns subjective self-perception and contextual fluctuations – which are better explored qualitatively. With its rich ontology and pluralistic methodology, cognitive semiotics can here make an important contribution.
This thesis examines how Russian–Swedish bilinguals with high proficiency in Swedish experience themselves across their two languages, focusing on perceived personality differences and the factors shaping them. Adopting a cognitive-semiotic approach, it applies tools such as the conceptual–empirical loop, phenomenological triangulation, and the Semiotic Hierarchy, using phenomenological interviews as the method of data collection. The analysis identified three major categories: (a) perceived differences, (b) levels of experience, and (c) factors of change, with corresponding themes. The findings revealed a spectrum of experiences, from prosodic and communicative shifts to personality changes and the experience of being non-authentic in their second language, all aligned with Swedish linguistic and cultural patterns. Even participants reporting no change showed subtle shifts across linguistic, cultural, and bodily levels of self. Variation appeared both across individuals and over time, shaped by proficiency, social environment, and age. Overall, the study showed that bilingual selfhood cannot be reduced to a binary division of change versus stability, but rather it emerges as a dynamic, multilayered process in which body, language, and culture are co-constitutive.}},
author = {{Basalaeva, Natalia}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Bilingualism and Personality: A Cognitive-semiotic Approach}},
year = {{2025}},
}