Tiuremno-blatnaya lirika [SEC=PERSONAL]

[Elena Ostrovskaya]

On Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 7:53 PM, John Dunn <J.Dunn at slavonic.arts.gla.ac.uk>
 wrote:

> Two points, if I may.
>
> 1.  I, too, would expect 'real' criminals to update their jargon, but has
> anyone noticed this actually happening?
>
> 2. I am not sure that I entirely agree that in this context association and
> dissociation are more or less the same thing, but my point was rather
> different, namely that other forms of corporate slang lack the dissociative
> element present in Russian zhargon.
>
> John Dunn.
>
Well,
First, I am not sure that many criminals personally updated their jargon. It
is just that at some point the situation in the criminal world had to
respond to the situation in the market and one generation was faced with
something like unemployment, since different professions were in demand, so
a new generation came and brought their own language. I guess this picture
is too general and metaphorical, but that is what happened in terms of
language. To my knowledge, the current one is different from what it was,
say, 20 years ago. Unfortunately, I am no expert in the field and can not
come up with a bunch of books and articles to support my point. There must
be at least some, though. As far as know, the most authoritative dictionary
is "Толковый словарь русского сленга" by V. Elistratov, but there should be
something else.

And second, I think the general laws of borrowing words \ expresions from
one jargon to another within one language are quite the same for all groups,
whereas the amount of expressions borrowed as well as the purpose and the
exact shades of meanings are different in each particular case. If we focus
on the not such a numerous group of words / expressions and texts
appropriated by the Russian intelligentsia in the late Soviet time, the
usage  of the lingo and perception of the texts, there I guess the idea of
dissociation should be considered for motivation, I admit. I am not quite
sure, though, that it will make any difference at the level of usage,
rather, I believe, it will follow the standard laws of fashionable language.

I am afraid I am getting too close to the field of speculation I would
really like to avoid.

Elena Ostrovskaya


>

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