From_“Prison_Break”_to_American_Prison_Slang

From “Prison Break” to American Prison Slang Abstract This paper mainly talks about slang being spoken in American prisons, from the aspect of the popular American TV series” Prison Break”. In the first part, I briefly talk about prison culture and prison slang. In the second part, I discuss the two functions of prison slang, and in the last part, I conclude the principles in translation of slang and the importance of slang in English study. [Key words] slang, prison, culture, translation Introduction “Prison break” is one of my favorite TV series. I was attracted by the handsome “Michael Scofeild”, by the stimulative shots, by the intelligent characters, by their humorous conversations…… However, as a student major in language study, I am also interested by the new phrases and slang in the play, which are very useful in understanding prison culture. For example, do you know what does”shank” means in prison' It is not your organ; it means a handmade prison weapon In order to research more in slang, I wrote this paper. America is known as a “melting pot” from every social aspect. From the language aspect, productive American people add more and more new phrases and slang into the English language. According to the Cambridge dictionary of American English, the definition of “slang” is explained as “very informal language that is used especially in speech by particular groups of people and which sometimes includes words that are not polite “. Prison slang and culture It has long been recognized that language is an essential and important part of a given culture and that the impact of culture upon a given language is something intrinsic and indispensable. Prison is a very special society. First of all, Most of the criminals come from the unprivileged lower social class. When they enter into the jail, they bring their language with them, especially those dirty words such as “ shit”,”秀豆” “bitch” etc. Secondly, 40 percent of the American prisoners are black people. Because of the racial discrimination and conflicts, American prisons are reported to have higher prison violence rate than other countries. This point can be illustrated by the “snowflake” slang (see below). In a word, slang reflects prison culture and is also part of it. Functions of prison slang In the play” Prison Break”, prisoners use quite a lot of slang in their daily talking .Why prisoners use slang so frequently' To answer this question, we need to look into the functions of language. The functions of languages are of two basic types: psychological and sociological. The psychological functions may be described as the means by which people negotiate with reality, and the sociological functions can be said to be those ways by which people negotiate with other persons. The psychological functions may be regarded as essentially internal or subjective, and the sociological functions as external and interpersonal. Firstly, talking about the psychological function of slang in prison, I want to illustrate my point in the following examples. e.g.1,”you’re one mixed-up SNOWFLAKE, you know that'” (By C-note, episode one) Note: Snowflake is not the real snowflake. It is a derogatory term for a Caucasian. e.g.2,”Suggest you take a seat, FISH” (By T-bag, episode one) Note: Fish is the way they called the new prisoners. Though the above two slang, we can see the psychology world of prisoners. In American prisons, the racial conflicts is the same as (sometimes even more severe than) the outside world. The prisoners lose freedom; their anger can only be expressed towards their prison mates with different skin colors. The “snowflake” towards the white prisoners and the “fish” towards the new ones prove their discontentment with their prison life. Sometimes the prisoners will also make fun of the prison police to show their discontentment. Here is one example: “Sounds good to me, BOSS” (Michael, episode 3) Note: prison officer -- it is "sorry son of a bitch" spelled backwards. Boss shows their dissatisfactions towards the officers. Secondly, let’s look at the sociological function of prison slang. As we know, in order to do things that are forbidden, some prisoners will speak in a way that cannot be understood by the officers, then those expressions gradually become slang words. This is the sociological function: to communicate in a way that only the men in their circle can understand. In my research, I found that prisoners preferred to use numbers to communicate. It is because numbers are easy to write and remember. Here are some examples: 911 or 7-up: Warning that a correctional officer is coming. 38: Masturbation 4 piece A full set of restraints (cuffs, leg irons, waist, and security cover). 12:01: Used when a prisoner is discharged. "I got a 12:01 tonight." Translation of slang As we know, most of slang are not new or difficult words but simple, current and daily words, but they bring us much difficulty and confusion in understanding them. According to the above paragraphs, I think the reason lies in: 1, lack of cultural background and the misunderstanding of the function of the slang. To solve this problem, a translator should have a good command of background information. This is a long process and needs accumulation. We can broaden our horizon by reading books, watching movies and so on. 2, too much rely on the dictionary and neglect of the” context” Dictionary of slang only tells us the “dictionary’ translation of the slang. However, the correct understanding of slang can only be achieved when we fully study the context. By saying “context”, I mean both social and linguistic context. Most frequently one can find something special about slang if the context is taken into consideration. The importance of slang in language study In “crazy English “magazine, there was once an article titled” without slang and idioms, students are in the dark”. This title shows the importance of slang in a language study process. According to Jacobson’s well-known framework of language functions based on the six elements of communication, slang actually shows the most important and basic functions of linguistics--- the referential function, the emotive function, and the phatic function. To know more slang is surely quite helpful in our communication with foreigners, especially American people. As I mentioned above, slang are reflection of culture and by looking into the mirror, you can see a lively, interesting people and their special way of expressing themselves. Bibliography 1，《Linguistics. A course book（second edition）》 2，《Language，Culture，and Translating》 Eugene A Nida，Shanghai foreign language education press 1993