Bilingualism and the transformation of the cultural core in an age of uncertainty

Abstract

The modern era is characterized by a high level of uncertainty, instability, and cultural multi-layeredness, which necessitates a rethinking of the role of bilingualism as a cultural and cognitive resource. In the context of migration, globalization, and the erosion of traditional cultural boundaries, bilinguals form a new model of cultural perception, in which one signified can be correlated with two or more equal signifiers [1], belonging to different linguo-cultural codes. The bilingual's choice of a signifier is determined by many extralinguistic factors: the situation, context, and the cultural role of the individual. The signified ceases to be merely an object; it becomes an object within a specific culture. The rejection of unambiguity and the acceptance of multiple meanings for each sign (at the intersection of objective cultural reality and its subjective perception by an individual carrying several cultures) become not a deviation (as in non-developing, stagnating communities, described in the appendix to the novel "1984" — "The Principles of Newspeak" by G. Orwell [17]), but a new norm, a tool for accepting differences and maintaining resilience in conditions of instability, and a resourceful state for adaptation. Here, culture is considered not only as ethnic but also as social, professional, gender, and generational. A commentary is provided on the differences between natural (acquired in early childhood) and acquired (learned at a later age) bilingualism within the study of the cultural core's transformation. The problem of identity conflict in natural bilinguals is also mentioned, the solution for which lies in strengthening self-competence. 

The article proposes a hypothesis regarding the structure of a bilingual's cultural core as a dynamically organized semantic space where cultural meanings intersect, modulate, and coexist in a non-linear configuration. In practical application, this, for example, forms the basis of the concept of "two-facedness" as a positive cultural adaptation mechanism (the two-faced Janus), contrasting it with the negative understanding of "duplicity" in traditional cultures. This system of accepting constant chaos and the ability to benefit and grow stronger in conditions of uncertainty constitutes the basis of Antifragility [15], where difficulties do not break but make one stronger. Particular attention is paid to the shift in functions for preserving the cultural core, transitioning from educational institutions and the state to the older generation, from rigid dogmas to living case studies—and to the current challenges faced by bearers of indigenous cultures in their attempt to maintain identity amid the blurring of external and internal boundaries.