Abstract

This conceptual paper introduces the construct of Linguistic Self-Preservation (LSP) as an existential mechanism through which individuals maintain or reconstruct symbolic agency, identity continuity, and existential coherence through linguistic practices under conditions of displacement, marginalization, or identity disruption. Drawing on phenomenological and existential philosophy (Heidegger, Sartre, Foucault), psychoanalytic theories of language and the Other (Lacan, Kristeva), and contemporary second-language acquisition frameworks emphasizing agency and identity (Norton, van Lier, Kramsch), the paper proposes a four-stage model of LSP: Existential Displacement, Linguistic Expansion, Symbolic Resistance, and Regenerative Identity Formation. The central argument is that learning and using a second language can function as an ontologically significant practice—a mode of standing against existential erosion—rather than merely a communicative or cognitive activity. Crucially, Linguistic Self-Preservation does not refer to biological survival but to the preservation of existential coherence, narrative identity, and symbolic agency. The paper is situated within the broader framework of the Meta-Structural Regenerative Model of Existential Exhaustion (MSRM-EE) , which serves as an upstream theoretical context explaining how existential capacities undergo erosion; LSP, in turn, examines one specific regenerative pathway through which symbolic agency may be reconstructed. The novelty of this paper does not lie in asserting a generic link between language and identity. Rather, its novelty lies in conceptualizing second-language practice as a potential regenerative mechanism for existential continuity precisely when primary symbolic structures are experienced as insufficient, restricted, or destabilized. The paper contributes to an emerging interdisciplinary perspective at the intersection of existential philosophy and linguistics, bridging philosophy, psychology, and applied linguistics, and it opens avenues for empirical research on language learning as a site of identity reconstruction under conditions of limited recognition. Keywords: Linguistic Self-Preservation, Existential Erosion, Identity, Agency, Second Language Acquisition, Phenomenology, Symbolic Marginalization, Ontological Continuance, MSRM-EE, Symbolic Agency