multilingualism and multiple personalities

[Spike Gildea]

I suspect that social factors might play a greater role than neurological
factors in accounting for why some people feel like "a different person"
when speaking their second language(s)

I learned the second languages in which I became fluent (Nepali, Spanish
and Portuguese) all after the age of 21, and in each case, I learned by
immersion (the first time supplemented by intensive instruction, the other
times not).  I definitely did not learn by "translation", but by
experiencing the languages in context, picking up meanings by inference and
example, learning appropriate usage by imitation and trial and error (i.e.
mostly "natural" language learning, parallel to how first languages are
learned).  I have commented several times over the years how I feel
"different" when speaking a second language.

Some differences could plausibly be linked to neurology (as Brian
suggested), by assuming that the first language has already fully optimized
its use of the space it occupies, requiring you to look elsewhere for
storage for new ideas.  Such things might be the nuances of lexical
semantics, which often cannot translate easily (e.g. even something as
concrete and apparently simple as 'plate' have a very different set of
referents in America versus Nepal, as well as different location and manner
of use, etc. -- they hence could reasonably be expected to be stored in
different cognitive spaces).  You might also throw in the processing
required for changing your expectations about what sorts of meanings come
in what order, e.g. adjective-Noun versus noun-adjective, or more complex
discourse patterns / information structuring, like  putting 'if' and 'then'
at the ENDS of their respective clauses (as in SOV language Nepali).  These
things might require additional storage and pattern recognition strategies,
which might thereby account for the neurological differences, but I don't
see these things as necessarily making me feel like "a different person".

Where I feel the difference myself is in the domain of personal
interaction, where your dialogic turn-taking behaviors might be radically
different, including also the grunts and interjections you use to maintain
connection during conversation (not just  the sounds themselves, but when
to use them).  And taking a step further away from "pure" language, but
still sticking firmly in the context where language is used, some will
notice how different your body language might be when speaking different
languages in different cultural contexts -- not just conventionalized
gestures, but your intuitive sense of how much personal space to give your
interlocutor, or whether to look them in the eye, etc.  And then take the
step into attitudes and expectations, and you find that the presuppositions
you make about what is acceptable / expected / appropriate vary
tremendously with cultural context, shaping again your freedom to express
many of the things you might want to express; the more aware you are of
these things, and the more you take them into account when speaking, the
more you will feel like a "different person".  You need a different set of
"appropriateness filters" in each situation, and to the extent that
speaking a foreign language correlates with immersion into a foreign
culture (and ADOPTION of different "filters"), it would not be surprising
for someone to feel like a different person while speaking different
languages.

These things are all associated with becoming an insider in a foreign
culture, and I'm sure the list could be extended greatly with just a little
bit of brainstorming.  There is a pretty good body of literature on the
phenomenon of "culture shock", in which people who have been away from
their native culture for a period of time experience distress because they
no longer fit neatly into the cultural (and sometimes even linguistic)
patterns of their native culture when they return.  The difference between
fluent second language speakers might have to do with degree of
acculturation -- the more acculturated (i.e. the more you "go native"), the
more you might be prone to feel like a different person.

So how might we account for the difference between native bilinguals and
fluent second-language/second-culture people?  My naive hypothesis would be
that children who grow up bicultural would feel much less shock of
transition, since they don't have to "unlearn" primary socialization in
order to transfer to a new set of "filters" -- their primary socialization
already includes multiple filters.

What do you think?

Spike

P.S.  I am reminded of the New Yorker cartoon in which a dismayed-looking
couple is looking across the street, where they see themselves, except
animated and happy, maybe already a bit tipsy, heading for a party just up
the street.  Caption: "Oh no, here come our other selves!"