Воровские псевдонимы как элемент криминального дискурса в трилогии Сергея Пясецкого

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to present the criminal pseudonyms found in Sergiusz Piasecki’s trilogy, that is, in the novels “Jabłuszko” (‘Little Apple’), “Spojrzę ja w okno” (‘I Will Look in the Window’) and “Nikt nie da nam zbawienia” (‘No One Will Give Us Salvation’), to identify the motivation behind the pseudonyms and to prove that they can be a trace of criminal discourse. In these books, Piasecki described a period of his life in which he himself was a criminal. There are 54 pseudonyms and 6 nicknames in the trilogy. While they are not authentic and were created by Piasecki for fictional purposes, they reflect certain trends in the creation of new anthroponyms that exist not only among criminals, but in many social groups. This shows that thieves’ pseudonyms, next to sociolects, paratexts, egocentric elements, etc., are an important linguistic trace of the criminal discourse of the first half of the twentieth century.