Stability and variation in selfhood in Russian-Swedish bilinguals: a cognitive-semiotic approach

Using a cognitive-semiotic framework, we investigate to what degree consecutive bilingual speakers of Russian and Swedish who reside in Sweden experience themselves the Semiotic Hierarchy stands in a relation of Fundierung when using their first and second language. We distinguished between three basic levels of selfhood: bodily, enculturated and linguistic, based on a revised version of a theoretical model known as the Semiotic Hierarchy , and performed phenomenological interviews with 13 participants, looking for evidence for how they experienced themselves on these levels, and how changes occurred over time. The results showed more stability on the bodily level, more variance of features related to selfhood on the linguistic level, with the enculturated level falling, predictably, in between. These findings and analysis support a view of bilingual selfhood as based on processes of continuous negotiation, giving rise to “hybrid selves” marked by both continuity and transformation.