Substandard vocabulary in the sublanguage of the coal mining industry

Pribytova Larisa Valentinovna PhD in Philology Branch of the Russian State Institute of Performing Arts in Kemerovo - Siberian Higher School of Musical and Theatrical Art 650056, Russia, Kemerovo - Kuzbass region, Kemerovo, Voroshilova str., 19 b prilv@list.ru

Modern linguistics is characterized by a close interest in the problems of institutional communication, in connection with which the focus of scientists' attention has recently increasingly been on language forms that provide professional communication — professional sublanguages (terminological equivalents: professional languages, special languages, sublanguages, sublanguages, socio-professional language variants, languages for special purposes, LSP etc.).

The phenomenon of professional (special) sublanguages is considered in various aspects: theoretical and methodological ^{[6, 9, 17, 20]}, historical-linguistic ^{[10, 19]}, cognitive-discursive ^[3], sociolinguistic ^[8], functional-stylistic ^[7]. A large number of modern studies are devoted to the multidimensional characterization of specific professional sublanguages of various sciences, industries, folk crafts, etc. as integral systems, with a description of their corpus in terms of composition, origin, functioning features, reflection of the specifics of the worldview of their carriers, etc. ^{[4, 11, 15]}. Of particular relevance in this regard is the study of the professional substandard as an oral variety of sublanguages serving the speech of specialists in informal communication on professional topics.

Considering the professional sublanguage as "one of the many options for the implementation of the national language, a special functional-semiotic subsystem that is used for professional communication, accumulation, transfer and interpretation of special knowledge, as well as for assessing the realities of the professional sphere" ^{[20, p. 179]}, following O. V. Felde, it is advisable to emphasize its level organization, represented by "two layers (functional registers): upper (norm zone) and lower (usus zone)" [ibid., p. 180].

The purpose of this study is to present a multidimensional characteristic of the special vocabulary of the lower case sublanguage of the coal mining industry. The choice of the object of study is due to the lack of a comprehensive description of the uncodified part of the specified sublanguage.

Professional sublanguage of the coal mining industry (sublanguage of miners) as a professionally limited form of language existence, effectively implemented in oral and written communication, it is a sufficiently developed functional-semiotic subsystem that has a long history. The emergence and development of the special vocabulary of Russian miners is directly related to the formation of the coal mining industry in Russia, which dates back to the time of Peter the Great.

The structure of the modern sublanguage of the coal mining industry is functionally and stylistically represented by two registers: the upper one, which includes the term system and terminology, and the lower one, which incorporates professional vernacular and professional jargon. Each of these functional-semiotic varieties of sublanguage corresponds to a specific set of linguistic units.

The core of the professional vernacular is professionalism. The problem of differentiating between professionalisms and terms has a long history. In general , one of the main criteria for their differentiation usually includes:

1) normativity / non—normativity (according to this criterion, terms are "legalized", "official" designations ^{[5, p. 140]}; professionalisms are semi—official lexical units);

2) the nature of the signification (the term forms a strictly defined general scientific concept, occupies a clearly defined place in the term system of a specific field of knowledge; professionalism usually fixes an ordinary concept that arises as a result of practical activity);

3) operating environment (terms are used in an official setting, used in scientific texts, documentation; professionalism is used in a semi- or informal setting, common in oral speech);

4) the degree of prevalence (the terms are widely used within the terminology of a certain scientific and industrial sphere, are well known to its representatives; professionalism may be locally limited, for example, by the territory of existence);

5) the presence/ absence of expressive-emotional coloring (the terms are stylistically neutral; professionalism is usually emotionally colored, although this feature is not mandatory for these units).     

In the sublanguage of miners, many professionalisms act as a kind of equivalents of terms, being used in the same meaning as the corresponding terms, only in conditions of oral informal communication on professional topics: a tractor — ‘manual winch’, a trough — ‘mine skip’, an organ — ‘organ support’, a jackhammer — ‘jackhammer’, podstvolok — ‘zumpf’, overturning — ‘mine trolley tipper’, longitudinal — ‘drift’, etc. In most cases, when such linguistic units arise, there is a tendency to nominativeness due to the need to overcome linguistic redundancy, or a tendency to evaluativeness, figurativeness and imagery.

The vocabulary of the sublanguage of the coal mining industry also contains quasi—professionalisms - "special names that do not have synonyms in the terminology of the industry, but their denotative meaning is correlated with professional realities" ^{[18, p. 509]}. The emergence of quasi—professionalisms is primarily due to the desire to overcome linguistic lacunarity caused by the need to designate certain professional actions or objects that do not have an appropriate terminological name, but are important for miners in their work: horevka is a small ground utility room for storing some working tools, etc. in the form of narrow corridors going partially underground, resembling burrows’, a horse — ‘a piece of thin cable connected in the form of a circle, used to move manually over the surface of laths, racks, puffs, etc.’, failure — ‘an explosive charge that has not exploded in the hole’, etc. Quasiprofessionalisms often arise due to the detailing of some concepts, designated by terms, implemented according to the scheme "generic concept ? specific concept": mine cage (term) ? cargo crate — ‘crate used for lifting trolleys with coal or waste rock from the mine, lowering and/or lifting equipment and materials’, human crate — ‘crate used for lowering people into the mine and lifting them to the surface’ (professionalism), pyatnadashka (tag) — ‘conveyor chain, consisting of fifteen links’, etc.

Interprofessionalisms as lexical units used in a number of professional languages, as part of the miners‘ sublanguage, are represented by the names of robe — ’work clothes‘, balda — ’sledgehammer‘, flour — ’inert dust‘ (cf. flour — ’dust-like substance' ^{[18, p. 508]}, etc.

A special layer of sub—standard vocabulary of the sublanguage of the coal mining industry consists of professional jargon: dura - ‘support rack’, baba—yaga - ‘chairlift’, wooden — ‘repairman’, nipple - ‘self—rescuer’, skin — ‘miner's jacket’, etc. These units are sharply opposed to terms on the same grounds as professionalism. At the same time, the boundaries between professionalism and professional jargon are becoming more blurred. As a rule, these units of special vocabulary differ in the degree of expression (most pronounced in jargonisms and least in professionalisms, while it is important to take into account "whether this lexical unit is still perceived in the act of communication as expressive and stylistically different from other units expressing these concepts, or no longer" ^{[1, p.37]}. In addition, professionalisms and professional jargonisms are differentiated by the degree of prevalence (jargonisms, compared with professionalisms, are less widespread, locally limited, may exist within the boundaries of one or several nearby enterprises), by the degree of stability (professionalisms are more stable units, professional jargonisms are short-lived and often fall out of use due to the loss of emotionally expressive connotations and imagery as a result of frequent use in speech), by the environment of functioning (professional jargon is used only in informal oral speech), by the scope of nomination (professional jargon has a broader scope of nomination, since they can name not only production realities, but also everyday ones related to other semantic fields).

An example of professional interjargonisms that exist in the miners‘ sublanguage and have a similar meaning in some other sublanguages can serve as a friend — ’electric voltage‘, a hillock — ’brigadier‘, a Mashka — ’sledgehammer', etc. Also, as part of the professional slang vocabulary of miners, a small layer of units characteristic of prison-camp jargon is distinguished. The peculiarity of the use of argoisms in the miners' sublanguage is that they function in it in other meanings, while the connection with the original values may be more or less close. In the initial nominations, as a rule, negative evaluative meanings are actualized. Thus, the argotisms cop — ‘policeman', volchara — ‘operative officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs‘, snitch — ’informer‘ ^{[14, 16]} are used in the meaning of ’mining master‘, argoticism mentosaurus — ’policeman‘ — in the meaning of ’miner who previously worked in the Ministry of Internal Affairs', the word spoon—washer - ‘prisoner dishwasher’ ^[14] is used to refer to a repairman. Sometimes argotisms can be subjected to a complete semantic reinterpretation: a monkey house — ‘a room limited by a lattice for holding detainees or walking convicts’ ^[16] ? ‘mine cage’).

The analysis of the lexico-semantic structure of the vocabulary of the lower register of the sublanguage of the coal mining industry allows us to identify a number of main lexical and thematic groups based on the commonality of linguistic realities denoted by professionalism and professional jargonisms:

1) nominations of mining equipment (monkey — ‘hand jack’, humpback — ‘underground train intended for cargo transportation’, ram — ‘electric drill’, grishka — ‘cleaning combine’, catcher — ‘device for detaining mining trolleys that accidentally fell off the rope when rolling down inclined tracks’, etc.);

2) nominations of parts and parts of mining machines and mechanisms (boa constrictor — ‘sleeve, screw pump hose’, knight — ‘small gear in the conveyor gearbox’, rope — ‘conveyor chain’, horns — ‘electric drill handles', etc.);

3) nominations of mountain support and its elements (temporary — ‘temporary mountain support’, leg, leg — ‘rack of mechanized support’, balagannaya — ‘trapezoidal support’, upper - ‘upper element of support’, etc.);

4) nominations of technological processes and operations (fall off — ‘make an explosion', re—fastening — ‘replacement of old, worn—out rock supports with new ones’, swing - ‘move the rock mass using a conveyor’, loosening - ‘cleaning the conveyor belt from the bayonet', etc.);

5) nominations of persons involved in the production process (combine harvester — ‘machinist of a mining combine', geerpashnik — ‘underground miner', water — ‘underground miner engaged in pumping water from workings’, windmill — ‘head of the ventilation section’, etc.);

6) nominations of workwear and its elements, miners‘ equipment (french — ’miner's work jacket‘, cap — ’miner's helmet‘, gondolas — ’boots‘, can — 'self-rescuer', etc.);

7) nominations of structural divisions, special mine premises (structures) (rifled section — ‘mining site’, handle — ‘platform at the mine shaft on the surface, where people are lowered into the mine and lifted out of the mine’, flask — ‘room on the surface of the mine for storage and delivery of filled with drinking water tanks that miners take underground with them’, sinking — ‘a site engaged in sinking (preparatory) work’, etc.);

8) nominations of mine workings and their surfaces (stove — ‘vertical mining, furnace’, mounting — ‘mounting chamber’, prisukha — ‘false roof of the workings’, breast of the face — ‘surface limiting the mining and moving as a result of mining’, etc.);

9) nominations of emergency situations of different nature (collapse — ‘natural collapse of the roof’, typhoon — ‘the same as the collapse’, wedding — ‘accident in which the entire composition of the underground train derailed’, etc.).

The analyzed material showed that the most developed in the sublanguage of the coal mining industry are conceptual subspheres: "Persons involved in the production process", "Mining equipment", "Workwear and equipment of miners". It is obvious that in this way the language reflects the hierarchy of values of this professional community. At the same time, a significant part of sub-standard special names is associated with the designation of persons. First of all, the speakers of the analyzed sublanguage are interested in a person as a participant in the production process. This fact concerns to a greater extent the composition of the workers. The management, with whom ordinary miners, as a rule, have no direct contact, is nominated in rare cases (in the professional jargon of miners, there are single designations of leading persons: the hill — "foreman", the chief — "head of the site", the owner — "head of the site" and some others, containing in their semantics an indication of the superior position of these persons and their broad powers). A miner as a participant in the production process is important for the speakers of professional vernacular and jargon primarily from the point of view of the type of activity, the function performed by him (in the process of nomination, such parameters as the direct type of work, its conditions and nature, the quality of work are taken into account).

In addition, a person is evaluated as a member of the team. The work of miners in conditions of "isolation" from the natural outside world, a real threat to health and life lead to the emergence of close contacts between miners, to the cohesion of the team. The mining collective is a relatively homogeneous environment characterized by its members, first of all, by an evaluation scale with poles "friend – foe". "Strangers" are those who stand out from this environment by various indicators: by their appearance (babai – 'miner with Asian appearance'), belonging in the past to other social groups (mentosaurus — 'miner who previously worked in the Ministry of Internal Affairs', thug — 'miner who previously served a term of imprisonment in places of deprivation freedom’), negative moral qualities (hooch — ‘miner who informs the authorities about the misdeeds of other miners'), etc.        

The specificity of the nomination process in the lower case of the sublanguage of the coal mining industry is that, despite the numerous composition of its vocabulary, a rather limited range of objects, subjects or phenomena of the surrounding reality is subject to naming. This fact demonstrates a large number of synonymous series identified within various thematic areas. Their quantitative composition varies on average from two to seven components. Numerous synonymous series make up the designations of a mining combine: bull, grobina, vanka, grishka, Grigory, gosha, Pole, mole, etc.; food that miners take with them to the mine: brake, soldering, piece, zabutovka (zabutovka), thermos, progress; persons in the position of "locksmith": valve (vintel), spoon-washer, locksmith, wooden, iron, gold, diamond; persons in the position of "mining master": mountain, miner, mastyak, snitch, cop, wolfman; self-rescuer (personal protective equipment): lifeguard, jar, bucket, oxygen cushion, oxygen bottle, nipple, self-extinguisher; sledgehammers: mom, brother, balda, chatterbox (baldushka), etc.      

Synonymous professionalism and professional jargon in the miners‘ sublanguage may be identical in meaning (as, for example, the names of a self—rescuer) or differ in shades of meaning (a piece is ’a miner's lunch, consisting, as a rule, of a sandwich‘, thermos flasks are ’a miner's lunch, usually hot', etc.).

According to the formal criterion, special units of the lower register of the sublanguage of workers in the coal mining industry are divided into one—word: battery — ‘mine lamp’, rattler — ‘screw pump used to pump water out of workings’, go — ‘to carry out the removal of coal by means of a combine harvester’, rat - ‘miner of the treatment site’, etc.; two-word: the sides of the workings — ‘side walls of the mine workings’, a lousy site — ‘a piece of SHT’, a drip — ‘falling of small pieces of rock from the upper or lateral part of the mining massif’, drill a car — ‘put a trolley that came off them on the rails’, etc. and verbose: sit on the motor — ‘work as a conveyor driver’, to hang a lock on the lava — ‘to be the last to leave the mine in your team at the end of the work shift’, to fall off to nickels — ‘ideally to produce an explosion of rock mass’, etc.

The sources and methods of forming the sub-standard vocabulary of the sublanguage of the coal mining industry are very diverse. The main methods are the creation of a formally new unit and various semantic changes of words.

The professionalism and professional jargon of the miners' sublanguage, which arose through the creation of a formally new unit, are primarily related to the method of suffixation. In the formation of professionalisms, the suffixes -chick, -schik, -nick, -ist, which are used to nominate persons by the function performed, are particularly productive. Official job titles are underground miner, clean-face miner, etc. they are general designations and imply a whole range of technological operations that can be performed by their carriers. In this case, the professionalisms clarify and detail the content of these terminological designations, focusing their attention on the functional characteristics of the nominated realities. As a rule, they are devoid of expressive coloring. Professionalisms that name persons by their function, type of activity, are produced mainly from the basics of verbs (in this case, the motivating basics directly indicate a specific type of work – a fastener from a fastener, a posadchik  from plant (roof, lava), carrier from carry, etc.), as well as from the basics of nouns that pay attention to the main place of work (lavschik from lava, slaughterer from slaughter, etc.), its character (motorist from motor), etc. Motivating can also be the basis of a noun of the abbreviation type: geerpashnik from hydraulic fracturing — ‘underground miner'.

High productivity is demonstrated by the suffix -k(a), which is used to nominate technological processes and operations, as well as mining equipment, parts and parts of mining machines and mechanisms. All these names are formed mainly from verbal bases. At the same time, the nominations of technological processes and operations are created from the basics of verbs-professionalism, indicating the specifics of the action underlying this operation or process (otpalka from otpalit — ‘to make an explosion’, slicing from slicing — ‘to go through mining’, loosening from loosening — ‘to clear the conveyor belt from the bayonet’, burka from to drill, etc.). The motivating basis of nouns denoting mining equipment, as well as parts of machinery and mechanisms, are both common and special verbs (hook — ‘hitch’ from pick up, tug — ‘tug’ from tug). In addition, rarely the suffix -k(a) can form names from the bases of nouns (including abbreviated type) and adjectives: miner — ‘mine lamp’ from miner, pepeemka — ‘rock loading machine’ from PPM, fake — ‘temporary rack’ from fake, etc.

With the help of the prefix-suffix method, the names of parts of the mining, special formations in the surface of the mining are produced. In this case, models are used: 1) "under- + the basis of the noun + -ok" (podstvolok — 'the same as zumpf – a part of the mine shaft located below the soil of the workings of the lower near-trunk yard'), 2) "under- + the basis of the noun + -ok" (pit — 'a depression in the soil of the mine workings, where it is installed support rack’).

The method of truncation, which demonstrates the desire to save language resources, to abbreviated forms that facilitate the process of communication, is common in the education of professionals of the miners' sublanguage. The basis for the formation of words are: 1) one-word terms (usually polysyllabic): overturner ? overturner, self-rescuer ? rescuer, overalls ? special, mechlopata ? fur, etc.; 2) term combinations or word combinations-substantive type of professionalism, which as a result of truncation are simplified to their one-word equivalents. The form of term combinations is reduced using such techniques as: a) the transformation of the dependent attribute part of the phrase into a substantive with a more complex meaning: conveyor belt ? tape, battery lamp ? battery; often this technique is carried out using suffixes -k (a): drilling machine ? drill, concrete tightening ? concrete, underground work ? subway; -nickname: jackhammer ? jackhammer; -chick: loading truck ? loader; -ak: mining master ? miner; -uh(a): tarpaulin clothing ? tarpaulin, etc. Usually (as in the above cases) the original term combinations and professional phrases are two-component in their structure. It is extremely rare to find a truncation of the form of multicomponent term combinations: manual drilling machine with forced feeding to the face ? forcing; b) reduction of the phrase to a string word with the expansion of its semantics: loading machine ? machine, blasting machine ? machine, conveyor installation ? installation, electric drill ? drill, etc.

The method of substantiation is used, as a rule, in the formation of names: 1) special mine rooms: flask room, service room, 2) persons involved in the production process: mining — ‘mining master', hatch — ‘miner engaged in unloading coal’, 3) mining equipment: humpback — ‘underground train designed for cargo transportation', large — ‘hydraulic jack', small — ‘hand jack‘, 4) parts of mining machines and mechanisms: head — ’front part of the conveyor‘, tail — ’rear, end part of the conveyor', 5) fasteners: sawn — ‘humpback used as a rack’.

The addition method is used in the miners' sublanguage mainly for the nomination of persons by occupation. These names, as a rule, detail the general designation of the position of an underground miner: aquarius — ‘miner engaged in pumping water out of the face’, woodcutter, timber supplier — ‘deliverer of fasteners to the mine’, bag carrier — ‘miner helping the master explosives deliver explosives to the lava’, etc. In rare cases, the addition method is used to denote mining equipment (self—installation — ‘a device for placing trolleys that have descended from them on rails’), technological processes and operations (bulk—breaking - ‘breaking coal and piling it onto a conveyor in the face’), fasteners (single-cutting - ‘humpback'). In general, the method of addition in the analyzed sublanguage is carried out mainly by the basic structure with zero suffixation, less often by the basic structure with the help of suffixes -schik, -k(a).

In the professional vernacular and jargon of miners, the signification of elements of professional reality is also carried out by attracting words of common and special vocabulary through changes in their semantics. Such changes include: 1) narrowing, expansion and specialization of the lexical meaning of words, 2) metonymization, 3) metaphorization, 4) reinterpretation of semantically unrelated words based on their partial sound similarity.

Commonly used, as well as special words that have become professionalisms by narrowing, expanding and specializing their lexical meanings, are used mainly to denote the surfaces of mine workings and their equipment (the sides of the workings are ‘side walls of the mine workings’, mulda is ‘a depression in the soil of the mine workings’, dome is ‘a void in the roof of the workings formed in as a result of rock fallout’, ladder — ‘wooden flooring adapted for walking on mining workings’, etc.), elements of rock support and fastening materials (wedge — ‘element of frame support’, humpback — ‘fastening material for the construction of rock support’, etc.), items of workwear and equipment of miners (strap — ‘belt on overalls’, tag — ‘miner's service number', etc.).   

Metonymization in the creation of special lowercase units of the sublanguage of the coal mining industry is observed mainly in the sphere of the noun. Both common and special words act as a starting base. A variety of models are used: "action ? result of action": burka — ‘drilling’ ? burka — 'hole'; "action ? place of action": blockage (workings) — 'arbitrary dumping into the production of large masses of rock, causing the destruction of the support of the workings and disrupting normal operation in it' ? blockage — 'the part of the mining opposite the breast of the face'; "tool ? the place of action of the tool": the handle is a part of the mechanism of the lifting machine, which is taken by hand to move the crates, etc.' ? handle — 'a platform at the mine shaft on the surface where the crates are lowered and lifted'; 'containing ? contents': thermos — 'a special vessel for storing the contents at a constant temperature' ? thermosok — ‘miner's ration, usually hot', mulda — ‘deepening in the soil of the mine’ ? mulda — 'water mass with rock particles, silt accumulating in the recesses of the soil of the mine'; "object (tool, mechanism or part thereof) ? subject of activity (a person by occupation using this tool, etc.)": l opata — 'a tool for shifting coal ? a shovel — 'a miner of a cleaning face', a button — 'a movable button for closing current in wires' ? a button — 'a conveyor operator'; "object ? another object connected with the first object at the place of origin": pole — 'a resident of Poland' ? pole — 'a mining combine made in Poland'; 'part ? whole': a piece of 'a piece of bread' ? a piece — 'a miner's ration' (as a rule, a miner's ration consists of a sandwich), the end‘the final part, a piece of something-L.' ? end — 'conveyor chain'; 'material ? product made of it': rubber — 'elastic material' ? rubber — 'special waterproof miner's clothing made of rubberized fabric for mining operations in heavily watered workings'.

In the professional vernacular and miners' jargon, metaphorization is one of the main ways to create sub-standard special units. A characteristic feature of professionalisms and professional jargon-metaphors is that the basis of metaphorical transfers is not only the similarity of appearance, form, function of the original and effective reality. Often, the transfer of lexical meaning is carried out by emotional sensation, psychological associations, "on the basis of peripheral semes" ^{[2, p. 672]}.

The metaphor in the considered layer of vocabulary is used mainly to perform an evaluative and expressive function, although the nominative function may also come to the fore when designating unnamed parts and parts of mining machines and mechanisms, some homemade devices (hooves - ‘sides of the conveyor belt’, belly (belly) — ‘the front part of the conveyor chain link’, a cat — ‘a homemade primitive brake to hold a broken car’, etc.). The majority of metaphorical professionalism and professional jargon is characterized by the presence of a pronounced emotive-evaluative component.

Metaphorical nominations functioning in the substandard vocabulary of the miners' sublanguage according to the sources of metaphorization are represented by four main categories: anthropomorphic, naturomorphic (with a clear predominance of zoomorphic), sociomorphic and artifact metaphors. The high productivity of the metaphorization method is observed when creating secondary nominations of mining equipment (monkey — ‘manual jack’, brother — ‘sledgehammer’, mole — ‘mining combine’, kettle — ‘downhole turbopump’, etc.); parts and parts of mining machines and mechanisms (tail — ‘the final, rear part of the conveyor’, cheek — ‘the side part of the conveyor chain link’, boa constrictor — ‘sleeve, screw pump hose’, etc.); overalls and its elements, miners‘ equipment (hat — 'miner's helmet', mackintosh — ‘special waterproof clothing for mining operations in heavily watered workings', snake — ‘belt on overalls’, etc.); persons involved in the production process (bark beetle — ‘creeper’, fish — ‘miner engaged in pumping water out of workings’, goblin — ‘miner of the treatment face', etc.).

The metaphorical picture of the world in the professional jargon of miners is modeled mainly on the principle of zoo- and anthropomorphism. Based on the coupling of the initial and effective conceptual spheres of metaphorization, the basic metaphorical models that organize the perception of the surrounding reality include the models "Mining equipment units are representatives of the animal world", "Parts and details of mining machines and mechanisms are parts of the animal (human) body" ^[13], "Persons involved in the production process, are representatives of the animal world."    

Reinterpretation of semantically unrelated words based on their partial sound similarity is a typical phenomenon for jargons. This "slang" metaphor on the contrary"is the transfer of meaning by similarity, but not of designated objects or phenomena, but of designating – sound shells of words" ^{[12, p. 647]} is also represented in the professional sublanguage of miners. Both common and special words are subjected to a similar reinterpretation. The direction of phono-semantic association in the formation of such nominations is usually set by the initial fragment of the word, monolithic or with a distant location of motivating sound elements: the passage of the imec — ‘passage of the chick’, to hand over — ‘to hand over your equipment after a work shift’, bol carcass — ‘ball da (sledgehammer)’, shn u r ok — ‘an underground miner engaged in delivering the necessary materials to the face from the surface’ (<shn y r yt), dv u trunk ka — ‘dv a parallel located trunk a’, g ri sh ka, g o sh ka — ‘mining combine’ (from the abbreviated nomenclature of the mining combine 1 GSH – 68), x and t ro mining — ‘g and d ro mining’, etc. Such nominations, pursuing primarily the goal of creating a comic effect, demonstrate the manifestation, in addition to the expressive, human (game) function. Laughter helps to overcome the stress associated with the extreme working conditions of miners.

Thus, the lower case of the vocabulary of the sublanguage of workers in the coal mining industry is a sufficiently developed system of special names, characterized by a variety of stratification categories, methods and sources of formation, functions performed. The use of professionalism and professional jargon, reducing the stylistic level of communication, gives it greater expressiveness and expressiveness. Consideration of substandard vocabulary in the aspect of its socio-cultural conditionality allows us to look at the professional vernacular and jargon of miners as a linguistic embodiment of the world of professional subculture, demonstrating the peculiarities of perception of objects of the outside world, ways of interacting with them, cultural stereotypes, values, motives and attitudes common to representatives of this profession.