Abstract
A careful insight into the human language reveals that the language people use ‘mirrors’ the surrounding reality, e.g., onomatopoeic words (meow or cling) or words like redskin ‘Indian’. One of the areas that is reflected in the language are people themselves. Inquiry into the language people use to describe both themselves and others is valuable for several reasons. First, it tells us which linguistic means are used and to what extent they are used; this, in turn, is important in the study of productivity, e.g., why a compound is chosen over a word created, e.g., by backformation. Second, it offers us a window into the nature of human beings. Third, it gives us a possibility of ‘spying on’ people’s lives through language. And fourth, it informs us on how language shapes people’s beliefs, behaviours and how it affects the language used in return. Prison slang has not been studied extensively, given limited access to penitentiaries and the ban of using it outside (imposed by prisoners themselves). However, as prison slang is unique in being used for special purposes, even an apparently facile analysis may prove useful, as it may contain information on prisoners and facilities, which is not directly stated; nevertheless, once decoded may reveal a world that is turned upside down. For this reason, the current work focuses on the neglected area of linguistic research and offers insight into the metaphor- and metonymy-based language used by US prisoners to describe themselves and fellow inmates. Such a study is not only useful from a linguistic point of view but also beneficial to scholars of other disciplines, e.g., psychologists and sociologists.
This research was supported by Maria Curie-Skłodowska University grant for young scholars and doctoral students awarded to Alicja Dziedzic-Rawska.
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- 1.
The glossaries are: http://www.writeaprisoner.com/prison-slang.aspx; http://prison-slang.com/.
- 2.
In the study of prisoners’ rehabilitation, the inmate code has often been cited as one of the direct causes of inmates poor rehabilitation.
- 3.
Available at https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/ (last access 06 July 2016).
- 4.
In my opinion a truthful and successful insight into prison lingo is only possible in the form of a “blind participant observation”. By “blind” I mean a situation when prisoners are not aware that the observer is a scholar. Only then can they feel natural in their behaviour and only then can the results be authentic.
- 5.
The term is defined as the substitution of new invented words for old established lexemes; in other words ‘new words for old’ (Halliday, 1976, p. 571).
- 6.
Some of the examples may contain foul language or describe obscenities; indeed, prison slang is not designed to be polite or politically correct.
- 7.
A service created by Adam Lovell to enable prisoners to become pen pals with people outside of prisons. The site has also been said to have a tremendous influence on reducing recidivism in the US. There are also other sites of a similar kind; however, many do not give the number of profiles created. The number may easily range from a few hundred to a few thousand and more.
- 8.
The examples come from Lakoff and Johnson (1980).
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Dziedzic-Rawska, A. (2017). Expressing the Prison Self. In: Gabryś-Barker, D., Gałajda, D., Wojtaszek, A., Zakrajewski, P. (eds) Multiculturalism, Multilingualism and the Self. Second Language Learning and Teaching. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56892-8_5
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