Człowiek i świat w języku subkultur

Abstract

The subject of the dissertation is a selection of currently functioning subcultures: the criminal subculture, the “fala” in the Polish army, the subculture of football fans, hip- -hop, students and sailors. These communities are still vital and enduring. The criminal subculture constitutes a kind of cultural basis for many present-day youth communities, especially those of aggressive nature. Criminal vocabulary permeates into youth slang and colloquial Polish, while customs and rituals of criminal origin can be observed both in the army and in schools. The communities create their own cultures, customs and behaviour patterns. Their members communicate with each other by means of a specific code, based on general colloquial lexis, and the specific vocabulary refers to the realities of significance to the community as well as to emotional and social life. The image of the world retained in metaphorical vocabulary is an individualised vision, interpreting the surrounding environment from a young person’s perspective. The specific language conceptualises reality in accordance with the norms adopted by the group, creates the reality, consolidating the values accepted by the community. The group’s language reflects its social structure, system of social roles, group stereotypes and auto-stereotypes, rituals and superstitious behaviours. The language of a particular subculture is distinguished by its characteristic lexis. It consists of neologisms which are closely connected with activities typical of each subculture. Apart from colloquial and slang lexis, the criminal community creates and uses its own unique lexis, comprising expressive, professional vocabulary (names of offenders, crimes and the circumstances of crimes) and prison slang vocabulary. The latter is strongly ritualised, subject to linguistic taboos, with the whole range of obligations and prohibitions concerning their usage, replete with magic spells and swearwords, words affecting reality (insults downgrading the addressee). The full picture of the criminal subculture is made up of professional and slang lexis, as well as ritual behaviours, linguistic magic and the symbolism of tattoos. The language of the military subculture comprises slang vocabulary and expressive professional vocabulary, as well as lexis referring to “the second life” in the army, so called fala, resulting from a specific way of thinking and specifically understood soldierly tradition in which time runs backwards and social life is strongly ritualised. The language of the military subculture is also reservists’ scarves and diaries kept by soldiers, in which they note the remaining number of days in the army, as well as a distinctive couplet constituting a kind of commentary on life in a military unit. The subculture of football fans, relatively limited in its verbal aspect, is considered as a contemporary tribal community, and a football match is perceived as a folk carnival eliminating all hierarchical relations, privileges, norms and prohibitions. The language of the subculture of football fans also comprises unique verbal forms of communication in a stadium, chanted cheers, songs and crowd comments. Its vocabulary, ritual behaviours, untypical forms of stadium communication, the subordination of the individual to the community reflect the view of the world and the feeling of power which the community gives its members. The members of hip-hop subculture are teenagers, inhabitants of urban housing estates. They use youth slang and the characteristic vocabulary only refers to specific forms of hip-hop activity: graffiti, music, rhyming and dance. They build their own reality based on their system of values: group bonding, friendship, trust, tolerance and shared beliefs. The language of the hip-hop subculture involves distinctive vocabulary, peculiar attire, ritual social behaviours and characteristic life philosophy. Students’ lexis almost completely overlaps with youth slang and colloquial vocabulary. However, students are also a subculture forming group, as the language of students’ subculture consists not only of verbal communication, but also of distinctive social behaviours, a specific way of thinking, a constantly developing sphere of superstitions and ritual behaviours, as well as stereotypes and auto-stereotypes of a student. Sailors’ sociolect is above all subordinated to the occupational realities, therefore its communicative lexis is characterised by brevity, conciseness and succinctness, and many utterances take the form of a command, order or dispatch. The specificity of living and working on board also breeds the need for verbalizing one’s emotions, hence the extensive expressive and ludic lexis. Another feature of sailors’ environment is a verbalized sphere of superstitions and magical thinking. The dissertation is appended with an index of the analysed vocabulary consisting of more than 4500 entries and an extensive bibliography.