MOBILIZING LINGUISTIC AND SEMIOTIC RESOURCES, CONSTRUCTING IDENTITIES IN LOCAL LIFE WORLDS: MIGRANT WORKERS FROM TIMOR-LESTE AND THEIR FOOTBALL CLUBS

ABSTRACT This paper is based on research of a sociolinguistic and ethnographic nature, which was carried out with young migrants from Timor-Leste, who were based in a small town in Northern Ireland (CABRAL; MARTIN-JONES, 2017). Through this research we traced their migration trajectories (via Portugal or England), and we documented the agentive ways in which they were dealing with local conditions of settlement and employment, and, at the same time, creating new spaces of solidarity and conviviality within local life worlds. We focus here on one particular life world – that of sport – and on the nine football clubs formed for Timorese men and boys in this local Irish setting. We describe and analyse three different aspects of the communicative practices that were developing around the football: (1.) The linguistic, cultural and semiotic practices involved in the naming and branding of the clubs e.g., practices that indexed different Timorese identities (from different regions of Timor-Leste) and practices that indexed different globalised cultural worlds of football; (2.) the language resources of the Timorese club managers (including Tetum, Portuguese and English), and their organisational practices, their ethos and their funds of knowledge; (3.) the significance of the scheduling of football tournaments around key dates in the establishment of the nation of Timor-Leste – a regular practice that indexed an orientation to a shared national origin.

摘要 本研究属于社会语言学与民族志取向，研究对象为定居于北爱尔兰某小镇的东帝汶青年移民（CABRAL; MARTIN-JONES, 2017。本研究追溯了这些移民经葡萄牙或英格兰的迁移轨迹，记录了他们在应对当地定居与就业情境中所采取的主体性行动，同时在本地生活世界中构建起团结与共融的新空间。本研究聚焦于其中一个特定生活世界——体育领域，以及该爱尔兰本地为东帝汶男性与男孩组建的九家足球俱乐部。本研究对围绕足球发展出的三类传播实践展开描述与分析：（1）俱乐部命名与品牌塑造过程中涉及的语言、文化与符号实践——例如表征东帝汶不同地区移民身份的实践，以及表征足球领域不同全球化文化语境的实践；（2）东帝汶俱乐部管理者的语言资源（包括德顿语（Tetum）、葡萄牙语与英语），以及他们的组织实践、精神风貌与知识储备；（3）足球赛事排期与东帝汶建国关键节点的关联意义——这一常规实践表征着对共同民族起源的身份认同取向。