Socio-lingual Phenomenon of the Anti-language of Polish and American Prison Inmates
Łukasz Zarzycki
University of NizwaAbstract
The aim of this paper is to compare Polish and American prison slang terms as well as their inmate codes. This paper is devoted to the phenomenon of prison subculture from the perspective of the Polish prison slang so called the secret grypserka language (from gryps – a slang word meaning a letter smuggled into or out of a jail). Grypserka is the anti-language of Polish prison inmates. Prisoners are people, too, like doctors, policemen and undertakers but when being in prison they lose their friends or often family and then there is nothing left for them but to learn words (grypserka slang) in order to communicate secretly with one another. Perhaps, nobody wants to be sentenced to prison apart from those who are broken-down. A lot of people regard imprisonment as the end of the world. In spite of their dislike or even fear of prisons, they do not close the way to experience power, wealth, sex and addiction. In order to gain so many conveniences, prisoners have to develop their language skills and learn grypserka which allow many desires to be met in their “second world” relieving the pains and inconveniences of incarceration. All in all, it was agreed that “the distinctive argot of inmates gives an insight into the institutions, preoccupations, and style of prison life” (Michaels and Ricks, 1980: 525). Unfortunately, the prison slang has a negative effect on the rehabilitation process because it carries subculture “essence” – rules and norms. It is due to unique expressions, words and phrases that the way of thinking and outlooks of the group members are shaped. When penetrating such a composite phenomenon as the prison slang one should take into consideration its specific attribute – secrecy – and, moreover, the fact that its chief goal is to fight against law.Keywords:
Prison slang, grypserka, Polish prison subculture, anti-language, American and Polish prison terminologyReferences
Archer, Thomas. 1985. The pauper, the thief, and the convict. New York: Garland Pub.
Becker, Howard. 1963. Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance. New York: The Free Press.
Bondesson, Ulla. 1989. Prisoners in prison societies. New Brundswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Braun, Kazimierz. 1975. „Drugie życie wśród skazanych młodocianych”, in: Negatywne zjawiska podkultury więziennej, środki i sposoby przeciwdziałania. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo CZSW.
Clarke, Garry. 1981. “Defending Ski-Jumpers: A Critique of Theories of Youth Subcultures’”, in: Thornton, Sarah and Gelder, Ken (eds.), The Subcultures Reader. London and New York: Routledge.
Clemmer, Donald. 1958. The prison community. Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Cressey, Donald, R. 1932. The Taxi-Dance Hall. New York: Greenwood Press.
Crimp, Douglas and Rolston, Adam. 1980. AIDS DemoGraphics. Seattle: Bay Press.
Cohen, Albert K. 1955. Delinquent boys: the culture of the gang, Glencoe. Ill: Free Press.
Czapow, Czesław and Jedlewski Stanisław. 1971. Pedagogika resocjalizacyjna. Warszawa: PWN.
Dickens, Charles. 1984. The Adventures of Oliver Twist. London: Folio Society.
Dumond, Robert W. 1992. “The sexual assault of male inmates in incarcerated settings”. International Journal of the Sociology of Law 20: 135-157.
Einat, Tomer. 2000. “Inmate Argot as an expression of prison subculture: the Israeli case”, The Prison Journal 80: 309-325.
Fonarow, Wendy. 1995. Empire of dirt: The aesthetics and rituals of British indie music. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press.
Fowler, Henry Watson. 1964. “Subculture”, in: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English. London : Clarendon Press.
Garabedian, Peter G. 1964. “Social Roles in a Correctional Community”, Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 55 (September): 338-350.
Giallombardo, Rose. 1966. Society of Women: A Study of a Women’s Prison. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Glenn, Lon B. 2001. Texas prisons: the largest hotel chain in Texas. Eakin Press.
Goffman, Irving. 1961. Asylums. Garden City. N.Y.: Doubleday.
Hebdige, Dick. 1979. Subculture: the meaning of style. Methuen, London.
Hargan, James. 1934. “The psychology of prison language”. Journal of abnormal and social psychology 30 (October-December): 359-361.
Hassine, Victor. 1999. Life without parole: living in prison today. Roxbury Pub. Co.
Hensel, Christopher, Tewksbury Richard & Castle, Tammy. 2003. “Characteristics of Prison Sexual Assault Targets in Male Oklahoma Correctional Facilities“, Journal of Interpersonal Violence 18: 595–606.
Hodkinson, Paul. 2003. “Net.Goth: Internet Communication and (sub) Cultural Boundaries’”, in: Muggleton, David and Weinzierl, Rupert (eds.) The post-subcultures reader. New York: Berg.
Jenkins, Henry. 1992. Textual Poachers. London: Routledge.
Kosewski, Marek. 1977. Agresywni przestępcy. Warszawa: Wiedza Powszechna.
Lerner, Jimmy A. 2002. You Got Nothing Coming: Notes From a Prison Fish. Broadway Books.
Maffesoli, Michael. 1996. The Time of the Tribes: The Decline of Individualism in Mass Society. London: Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage.
Mayhew, Augustus. 1851. “Paved with gold”, or, “The romance and reality of the London streets: ‘an unfashionable novel’”. London: Chapman and Hall.
Michaels, Leonard & Ricks Christopher. 1980. The state of the language. University of California Press.
Moczydłowski, Paweł. 1988. Drugie życie w instytucji totalnej. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego.
Morawski, Jerzy. 1968. „Młodociani grypserzy. (Pragmatyczne i semantyczne aspekty gwary więziennej)”, Przegląd Penitencjarny VI nr 4/20: 39-44.
Morrison, Arthur. 1946. A child of the Jago. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books.
Owen, Barbara and MacKenzie, Doris. 2004. “The mix: The culture of imprisoned women”, in: M. Stohr & C. Hemmens (eds.) The inmate prison experience. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 152-172.
Park, Robert E. 1925. The City. University of Chicago Press, London.
Pollock, Joycelyn M. 2005. Prisons Today and Tomorrow. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Przybyliński, Sławomir. 2005. Podkultura więzienna – wielowymiarowość rzeczywistości penitencjarnej. Kraków: Impuls.
Schrag, Clarence. 1944. Social Role Types in a Prison Community. Unpublished Master’s Thesis. University of Washington.
Stallybrass, Peter and White, Allon. 1986. The politics and poetics of transgression. London: Methuen.
Stępniak, Klemens. 1973. „Nazwy gwary złodziejskiej”, Poradnik Językowy 4: 210-222.
Sykes, Gresham M. 1958. The society of captives: a study of a maximum security prison. Princeton University Press.
Sykes, Gresham M. & Messinger, Sheldon L. 1960. “The Inmate Social System”, in: R. Cloward (ed.), Theoretical studies in social organization of the prison. New York: Social Science Research Council.
Szaszkiewicz, Maciej. 1997. Tajemnice grypserki. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Instytutu Ekspertyz Sądowych.
Thornton, Sarah. 1997. “General Introduction”, in: Thornton, Sarah and Gelder, Ken (eds.), The Subcultures Reader. London and New York: Routledge.
Thornton, Sarah and Gelder, Ken. 1997. The Subcultures Reader. London and New York: Routledge.
Thrasher, Frederic Milton. 1963. The gang: A study of 1,313 gangs in Chicago. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Ueno, Toshiya. 2003. “Unlearning to Raver: Techno-Party as the Contact Zone in Trans-local Formations”, in: Muggleton, David and Weinzierl, Rupert (eds.) The Post-Subcultures Reader. New York: Berg.
Valdivia, Angharad. 2003. “Racial Hybridity: Latinias/os as te Paradigmatic transnational Postsubculture”, in: Muggleton, David and Weinzierl, Rupert (eds.) The Post-Subcultures Reader. New York: Berg.
Wawszczyk W., Wawrzyniak L., Różański Z. 1994. „Charakter i struktura grup nieformalnych w zakładach penitencjarnych i Rejonowym Areszcie Śledczym w Katowicach”, in: „Materiały z konferencji”. Kalisz: Wydawnictwo CZZK.M.S.
Young, Jock. 1971. “The subterranean world of play”, in: Thornton, Sarah and Gelder, Ken (eds.) The Subcultures Reader, London and New York: Routledge.
