{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,2]],"date-time":"2026-05-02T21:56:53Z","timestamp":1777759013124,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":75,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,29]],"date-time":"2026-04-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1777420800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Behavioral Sciences"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Language is social, as it is used by individuals to communicate and exchange ideas in society. Language is also cognitive, as the primary function of language, even before communicating and exchanging ideas, is to think. This article connects the social representations of what bilingualism is in the United States and how transnational youth are talked about in U.S. society with how both of these social representations create cognitive representations (e.g., thoughts, ideas, and beliefs) about transnational youth that result in negative educational policies and practices and shameful psychological and behavioral experiences for these youth. We begin with an ethnosemantic analysis of the word \u201cbilingual\u201d in the U.S. and then use the cognitive linguistic phenomena of conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy to explain how bilingualism is cognitively viewed as a \u201cshameful problem\u201d in society for transnational youth. We link linguistic shame, brought on by the social cognitive representations of bilingualism as transnational youth metonymically being incomplete, broken, in disrepair, fractured, unsettled, displaced, lacking fully built linguistic structures, not fully in possession of any language, to the phenomenon of and conceptual metaphor of TRANSNATIONAL YOUTH\u2019S BILINGUALISM IS LINGUISTIC HOMELESSNESS. We conclude by putting forth a new metaphor, TRANSNATIONAL YOUTH FUNDS OF KNOWLEDGE ARE MYCELIAL NETWORKS, that rejects the concept of linguistic homelessness by pointing to these youth\u2019s expanding networks of fluid languaging practices, transnational academic skills, and ever adapting identities. Through this new discourse, we advocate for new ways of socially talking about transnational youth and their languaging practices that may lead to different cognitive representations of these students; reorienting bilingualism from a problem to a resource and a right.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/bs16050674","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,29]],"date-time":"2026-04-29T12:31:56Z","timestamp":1777465916000},"page":"674","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Uncovering How Social Cognitive Representations of Bilingualism in the United States Can Result in Psychological Shame and Linguistic Homelessness for Transnational Youth: Reorienting Bilingualism-as-Problem to a Resource and a Right"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1882-453X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Steve Daniel","family":"Przymus","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Feinstein College of Education, The University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI 02881, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1618-8776","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Omar","family":"Serna-Guti\u00e9rrez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Education, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX 76129, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9410-4545","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Pablo","family":"Montes","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Education, Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX 76129, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,29]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"158","DOI":"10.1080\/19313152.2023.2288727","article-title":"Transgressive translanguaging: Theorizing the corriente","volume":"18","author":"Sayer","year":"2024","journal-title":"International Multilingual Research Journal"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"395","DOI":"10.1146\/annurev-linguistics-011718-011820","article-title":"The advantages of bilingualism debate","volume":"5","author":"Antoniou","year":"2019","journal-title":"Annual Review of Linguistics"},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"Anzald\u00faa, G. 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