Systematic classification of American penitentiary jargon: functional-structural approach

The subject of the study is the lexical composition of American prison slang as an organized sociolinguistic system that is formed under conditions of isolation and institutional control. The concept of slang is analyzed as a social dialect, with prison slang being a subtype of it. A representative corpus of verified lexical units constituting the slang of American prisons is formed based on authoritative sources. The work offers a systematic classification of slang terms according to four complementary criteria. The functional criterion encompasses the conspiratorial, identificational, normative, adaptive, and pragmatic aspects; the thematic criterion covers the spheres of staff, inmates, space, everyday life, and chronometry; the social criterion reflects the informal hierarchy and group affiliation; while the linguistic criterion involves word formation models, semantic transformations, and etymology. Special attention is given to crypticity as a gradable parameter related to the degree of the conspiratorial function of lexical items under institutional control. The study employs a comprehensive approach, including lexicographic analysis to form a corpus of penitentiary slang; classification based on functional, thematic, social-hierarchical, and linguistic criteria; as well as semantic, etymological, and word formation analysis of individual units. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the creation of a comprehensive classification model of American prison slang that overcomes the fragmentation of existing glossaries. A systematic organization of vocabulary according to four complementary criteria – functional, thematic, social-hierarchical, and linguistic – is proposed, along with a scale of crypticity that reflects the degree of conspiratorial load of lexical items. It is established that prison slang represents an organized dynamic system rather than a chaotic collection of lexical items. Individual words can simultaneously fulfill multiple functions: for instance, "shot caller" (leader) bears identificational, social-hierarchical, and normative implications, while "fish" (newcomer) carries identificational and social-hierarchical ones. The degree of crypticity of a lexical item is directly determined by the necessity to conceal information from representatives of the administration, emphasizing the conspiratorial nature of the system as a whole. Patterns of semantic transformations (metaphor, metonymy, euphemization) are identified as universal mechanisms for the formation of a "coded" language in conditions of isolation.