The peculiarities of the lexemes representing the concept of "correctional institution" in English and Russian penitentiary discourse

Parfenenko Elena Nikolaevna PhD in Philology Associate Professor; Department of Foreign Languages; Russian State University of Justice 117418, Russia, Moscow, Novocheremushkinskaya str., 69, office 1312 milenik@mail.ru Other publications by this author

The lexemes representing the concept of "correctional institution" can fairly be considered in the context of penitentiary discourse. Issues of penitentiary discourse were dealt with by linguists such as Olga Alexandrovna Nikishina, who in her writings describes English-language discourse, as well as the process of implementing power relations in penitentiary discourse. Maria I. Sharko examines communication in penitentiary discourse. Andrea Mayer studies prison discourse in the UK ^[1-3]. The purpose of this work was to identify the similarities and differences between the conceptual features of the concept of "correctional institution" in English and Russian texts. The subject of the study is the semantics of English and Russian lexemes representing the conceptual component of the concept "correctional institution" in the compared languages. This concept was chosen due to the lack of study of its verbalization in comparative linguistics. The scientific novelty of this study is that it establishes for the first time the similarities and differences of the conceptual features of the "correctional institution" in English and Russian texts. The research material was articles from bilingual, etymological dictionaries, synonyms dictionaries, legal dictionaries of English and Russian, as well as slang dictionaries [Andrianov, Berson, Nikiforov, 2002; Muller, 2013; Clapp, 2000; Collins Online Dictionary, Electronic resource; Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Electronic resource; Macmillan English dictionary, Electronic resource; Martin, 2003, OED Historical Thesaurus, Electronic resource; Online Etymology Dictionary, Electronic resource; Oxford Dictionary of Law, Electronic resource; Partridge, 1984; Lighter, 1994]. The total number of lexical units studied was about 40 in the compared languages.

In this case, the core of the "correctional institution" concept will be "prison", which in turn combines several subsystems related to the derived terms "prisoner" and "guard" ^[4-6]. Thus, a certain functional and semantic field is formed around the central concept, which includes the following elements: synonymic, antonymic series, derivational field, as well as thematic groups of vocabulary related to the keyword in one way or another.

The most popular equivalents of the Russian word "prison" in English are the words "prison" and "jail", which came to us from Latin. Therefore, when translating a Russian-language version into English, there is often a dilemma between which of the two alternatives to prefer. An additional difficulty arises from the fact that from time to time even native speakers doubt which of the lexemes to choose, often confusing them in colloquial speech, without thinking about which context a particular word is more applicable to.

So, when choosing between "prison" and "jail", it is necessary to take into account which country we are talking about. The only term that has received official recognition in the UK is "prison". It is also used in an official business style in cases where it is necessary to arrange correspondence. Using the terms "prison" and "jail" in English, without referring to a specific correctional institution, but on the contrary, covering the entire range of penitentiary institutions, you can do without the article. Whereas, when referring to a specific correctional institution, before characterizing it with the lexemes "prison" and "jail" (acceptable in a colloquial style), it is necessary to insert the article "the" ^{[8,9, 12]}.

Terminology is somewhat different in the United States, where the meaning of the entire phrase is of great importance. So, when talking about a place of detention for citizens serving sentences for committing a serious crime (a term of imprisonment of a year or more), the term "prison" is usually used. These institutions are under the jurisdiction of the government of a state (state prison), as well as the Federal Bureau of Prisons (Federal Bureau of Prisons).

In order to find a synonym for the term "prison", in American English you can use the noun "penitentiary", which can be translated into Russian as "correctional institution", or more specifically "penal colony".

In the colloquial speech of American citizens, the word "jail" is often used as a collective name for correctional institutions of various types. Whereas in the official business style, this term has a narrower meaning and can be translated as "a place for holding persons awaiting trial or serving sentences for committing a minor crime (convicted for a year or less), as well as persons awaiting transfer to a new location."

Thus, the term "jail" can be called the American equivalent of the Russian term "SIZO" or "pre-trial detention center." It is noteworthy that the same term in British English will be translated somewhat differently: "remand centre", or in the more common version "remand prison". An alternative to the term "prison" in the UK is also the lexeme "gaol". The only difference is that the term is more widely used and is used to refer to correctional institutions, including Australia and Ireland.

In addition to the above-mentioned concepts, there are a number of other terms in English that can characterize the institutions of the penitentiary system. The most popular among them are: "facility", "prison facility", "cell house", "punitive institution", "choky" and "counter" despite the fact that in most works of fiction the terms "prison", "jail" and "penitentiary" are still the most common. It was they who were used in their works by such authors as J. Cheever, J. Grisham and S. King ^{[15; pp.122-129]}. At the same time, according to statistics, the word "prison" was most often found in the above-mentioned works, slightly less often "jail", "penitentiary" and "jailhouse", which allows us to speak of them as literary variants of the Russian-language term "prison".

However, this trend can also be explained from a stylistic point of view, since some of the English-language analogues of the Russian lexeme "prison" are characteristic of official legal documents, and not for literary texts. Such terms include "jail facility", "prison facility", and "punitive institution". In addition, as already mentioned, some of the terms refer exclusively to the British version of English, which explains their absence in the texts of American writers.

It is noteworthy that the etymology of the three most frequent lexemes is diverse and dates back to several languages: French and Latin. Thus, the lexeme "prison" came into use from the beginning of the 12th century in the Old French version of "prisoun", which implied several translation options, namely "captivity", "imprisonment", "prison", "prisoner". The term "jail" is also a loan word – cavea, which in the original version could be interpreted as "cage", "empty room", "stall". It was only in the 14th century that the term changed its lexical coloration and came into use as an analogue to the terms "cage" and "prison".

The term "penitentiary" has a purely Latin origin and has been used since about the 15th century. In its original version, "penitence," the term could be translated as "repentance," which is why this lexeme was first used in English, implying a place of punishment for crimes against the church. Thus, the original version of this term had a narrower specialization and a close relationship with the field of moral censure ^{[10, 11]}.

Based on the origin of the three most popular terms, it can be concluded that the terms "jail" and "prison" have the greatest number of similarities, since both of them are closely related to the verb "to hold" with the only difference being that "prison" denotes an action to hold, and "jail" a place for imprisonment. Also, both of these terms are united by the process of borrowing (the original language is French), while the third concept dates back to Latin. The difference with the third lexeme lies in the fact that initially it did not have a negative color and meant "repentance". The word acquired a negative connotation only after becoming a lexical unit of the English language, in which the term began to mean a correctional institution.

Considering the word "penitentiary" by analyzing the dictionary entry devoted to it, we can come to the following definition: "penitentiary" is a place where citizens who have committed serious crimes are imprisoned. In more expanded definitions, it is clarified that institutions called "penitentiary" may include persons awaiting trial, which makes this term similar to "jail". However, the terms cannot be called completely identical, since both "penitentiary" and "prison" are in the possession of federal authorities.

An attempt to distinguish the areas of application of the three most popular terms in the field of jurisprudence for a correctional institution may be the compilation of a comparative table based on the following criteria: the authority responsible for overseeing prisoners, the severity of the crime they committed, the degree of restriction of freedom, as well as the length of imprisonment. The results are presented below:

Table

Parameters of the connotative comparison of the lexical units "prison", "jail" and "penitentiary"

In the context, the terms "prison" and "penitentiary" are usually used in conjunction with the lexemes "state" and "federal". Such combinations are especially often given if the name of a particular prison is mentioned in a literary work. Whereas the term "jail" is usually used in combination with the words "local" and "county".

According to the severity of the crimes committed, it can be clarified that criminals whose actions have caused serious damage to the life of society or caused the death of a particular person are usually placed in a correctional institution called "prison". The Penitentiary is a place to imprison those whose actions have not caused such severe damage, but nevertheless have affected the interests of society or the state. "Jail" is more a place for the detention of persons who have committed offenses that are not related to the private life of citizens or the entire society. Thus, the term "jail" is lexically close to the Russian-language "pre-trial detention center" and can be perceived as a "place for temporary detention of suspects" ^{[2; p.157]}

When translating foreign terms into Russian, it is necessary to use not only reference literature, but also to study the legal traditions of other states. For example, there are three types of prisons in the UK: maximum, medium and minimum isolation of prisoners. Similarly, there are three types of penal colonies in the Russian penal system: general, strict, special regime, and settlement colonies. However, it is incorrect to translate English names with the direct use of the word "colony", since it is necessary to take into account the realities in which this word will be used. Thus, the British "minimum security prison" is not a general regime colony in the usual sense of the term, and the Borstal correctional institutions, which house juvenile offenders, are not a correctional labor colony for minors ^{[16; pp.122-129]}.

Closely related to the terminology used for "penitentiary institutions" is the prison vocabulary, the origin of which is often associated with specific people or events. Thus, metaphors play a major role in the naming of certain familiar words by prisoners, which allow them to allegorically express a person's idea of the outside world. Some of them are anthropometaphors ^[17]. As a rule, proper names that have lost their original meaning (connection with the personality that caused their appearance) belong to this category ^[18].

Analyzing the material of the penitentiary lexicon, several groups of anthropometaphors can be distinguished:

· Metaphors based on the name of a real person. These include the term "Black Maria", which refers to specialized vehicles for transporting prisoners. The appearance of this lexeme dates back to the personality of the black owner of the boarding house Maria Lee, who in the 19th century helped deliver drunken or inappropriate guests to prisons to the police. Another example is the term "Harry Holt," which originated in the name of Harold Holt, the Australian Prime Minister who disappeared without a trace in 1967. This case is still unprecedented, as the police have not been able to find a single piece of evidence on it, as well as to identify the motives for the disappearance of a high-ranking official. These facts collectively explain that in the prison lexicon, as well as in the context of legal jargon in general, the lexeme "Harry Holt" refers to an escape committed under extraordinary circumstances. It is also noteworthy that, having originated in Australia, this jargon has penetrated into the terminological systems of other English-speaking countries, which indicates the comprehensive nature of the penitentiary lexicon ^[13]. In Russian, there are also jargonisms based on names: "Kataev City" means prison, although there is no city with that name. "Uncle Mityai" means a transfer prison. "Ivan Ivanovich" in Argot can mean a prosecutor, "Ira" is the Criminal Code, "Maxim" is good-natured; a chamber jester, "Tamara's dwelling" is an isolation ward, "Tashkent" is a bonfire, "Yurik" is a thief.

· Anthropometaphors based on the names of fictional characters. For example, guards in English-speaking countries are often informally referred to as "ninja turtles" (the nickname comes from the popular cartoon "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", whose costumes closely resemble the equipment of correctional institution guards, in which they usually suppress local riots). The jargon "robocop" has a similar origin (the name comes from a character in a popular movie who became famous for his incorruptibility and zealous service to the law). In prison usage, this nickname is often used for guards who notice the slightest non-compliance with the rules of internal order by prisoners and promptly report them to senior management ^[14].;

· Anthropometaphors based on the most common lexemes of the English language. For example, regardless of the real name of the policeman, prisoners often refer to the representative of the law with their own name "John".

Some of the sociolecisms present in prison jargon are of toponymic origin, which means that their origin is related to real geographical names. Among such lexemes, there are quite a lot of names of correctional institutions that have certain features. For example, the jargon "Siberia" is often referred to as an isolation ward, while prisons with a free schedule are often found in everyday life under the informal name "Disneyland".

An interesting group of sociolecisms to study are those based on prisoners expressing their religious feelings. So, many of them call the place of forced detention "hell's front". It is noteworthy that the use of such terms in everyday use is due not so much to the moral principles of prisoners as to the desire to exist in a more comfortable environment in relation to other convicts. This is due to the fact that for citizens of English-speaking countries who identify themselves as belonging to a particular religion, meetings with a priest, a specialized diet (interconnected with religious holidays), as well as quieter cellmates who share their religious views can be organized in the cell.

Zoometaphors are also widely used among prisoners. They are highly effective because, based on the image of animals, they most successfully characterize a particular trait of a person's character, which is easily associated in the minds of communicants with a certain object, sign, or phenomenon ^{[19; pp. 108-116.]} For example, prisoners often use the term "road dog" to refer to their best friends, whom they can trust when under any circumstances, and the "fish" token is a newly arrived prisoner who has not yet proven himself in any way, therefore he has to endure ridicule from his cellmates. Whereas the lexeme "wood duck" rather characterizes an "inexperienced" prisoner (who had not previously served a prison term), who, in order to adapt to a new environment faster, repeats the actions of his older comrades ^[20]. There are also quite a lot of zoometaphors in Russian, for example: "shark" - a long-term convict with confiscation of property; "alligator" - a criminal capable of any crime; "cormorant" - an inexperienced, novice thief, hooligan; "beetle" - an experienced thief; "zebra" - blinds on the windows of the cell; "crocodile" - train; "fly" - bullet; "spider" - warden, prison loan shark.

In Russian, the term "prison" has many analogues among jargonisms: "academy", "village", "village", "bag", "tsynta" or "tsyntovka". Some jargon refers to separate rooms in correctional institutions: "closet" is a punishment cell; a penal isolation cell or a temporary detention facility (SIZO) is an aquarium.

Thus, the legal terminology system is a set of several layers: official (literary) vocabulary, which is present in the official business style (correspondence design, legislation), and jargonisms, which are part of the informal environment of prisoners' communication. Based on the analysis of these two categories, it is possible to compare the Russian and foreign prison systems, including the structure of correctional institutions at various levels in different countries. The issue of comparing domestic and foreign prison jargon remains not fully explored in linguistics, on the basis of which it is possible to draw a conclusion about the attitude of prisoners to various measures of restriction of freedom and their effectiveness, as well as to develop a universal approach to the system of execution of punishments for the commission of the most serious crimes.