View Content #26839

By Isabelle Sackville-West, CASLS Fellow

Since their creation in 1999, emojis (i.e., a digital image or icon used for a variety of purposes in digital communication) and instant messaging (i.e., real-time messages sent between interlocutors) have become practically inseparable. Shigetaka Kurita is credited with first creating emojis to solve the problem of confusion and lost meaning in text-based communication (Rugnetta & Brown, 2016). Now, on social media and in instant messaging, emotional expressions are far more frequently delivered via emoji rather than words (Jaeger, 2017, p. 275). According to Gretchen McCulloch (2015), emojis are an accessory to textual communication. Emojis are to text, as gesture is to spoken language. However, they are increasingly carrying higher meaning and value in communication. Essentially, emojis serve to make texting more like oral communication by trying to capture emotion and nuance that text cannot. Emojis are part of textual paralanguage, just like the use of all capital letters or repeating letters for phoneme emphasis (Rugnetta & Brown, 2016). Furthermore, emojis have a variety of symbolic roles and may be pictographic or logographic. They may also act as stand-ins for the self or for other subjects through visual or homophonic cues, leading to both literal and abstract interpretations (Danesi, 2017). The ways in which emojis are used, however, is not universal. Their use varies by context and community, leading to standardized and accepted meanings that vary across cultures (Rugnetta & Brown, 2016).

The ambiguity and variety of symbolic roles that emojis occupy allow them to be manipulated for both personal and political use. For example, the “Claws Out for Trans’’ campaign declared that the lobster emoji would be used as the unofficial trans symbol until the transgender flag is incorporated into the emoji library (Abidin, 2018, p.1). Emojis are, in many ways, a reflection on society and the power imbalances, prejudices, and assumptions therein. It wasn’t until 2015, that multiple skin tones were available for the people and body-part emojis (Rugnetta & Brown, 2016). Thus, many have taken the initiative to demand that more inclusive emojis be created. The “Hijab Emoji Project,” for example, lead by 15-year-old Saudie Rayouf Alhumedhi, saw the successful creation of a hijab-wearing female emoji despite widespread racist backlash (Abidin, 2018, p.1). The political nature of emojis is not only seen in their use by consumers, but also in the ways that companies and governing powers respond to their use. The infamous eggplant emoji, for example, was the only emoji to be excluded from Instagram search results for fear of it being attached to sexual content (Highfield, 2018, p.3). Additionally, Apple, Samsung, Google, WhatsApp, and Twitter all replaced the pistol and handgun emojis with water guns in response to gun violence (Abidin, 2018, p.1). This makes them an especially relevant digital tool for language learners as they learn to navigate this heterogeneity across cultural boundaries and languages.

For example, learners of Chinese will need to be especially aware of the political role emojis play.  In the face of political censorship, emojis in China have taken on particular significance. In China, emojis are often referred to as 表情 (biaoqing), short for 表达感情 (biaoda ganqing) which literally means “expressing emotion,” an umbrella term that encompasses all the genres of visual content used in chat conversation such as emojis, stickers, and sometimes gifs and edited screenshots. These genres are grouped together due to their shared purpose: expressing emotions in textual communication (de Seta, 2018, p. 2). The most popular emojis in China are those created by Tencent for their popular social platforms and apps such as QQ and WeChat (de Seta, 2018, p. 6). Over time, and under the pressure of censorship, many of the original emojis have taken on new, or subversive significance. The normal smiley face, for example, is used to imply sarcasm, detachment, or annoyance since it doesn’t look as genuinely happy as the blushing smiley face or smiley face with smiling eyes. The smiley with waving hand is not used to say hello or goodbye, rather it implies outright rejection of the interlocutor or their statement (Huang, 2017). In large, public domains, the political use of emojis is more salient. On Sina Weibo, the red candle emoji is frequently disabled due to its repeated use in public displays of grief. Previously, during the anniversary of Tiananmen Square, large strings of red candle emojis were seen, posted by Weibo users without text, to symbolize participation in the remembrance and grieving over the event. Now, during sensitive times, the emoji is entirely inaccessible (de Seta, 2018, p. 7). More recently, Chinese netziens made use of the rice and bunny emojis, in Chinese 米兔, pronounced “mi3 tu4,” to circumvent the censorship of the words “me too” on Weibo and Wechat (de Seta, 2018, p. 13). China serves as a poignant example of the evolution and politically-charged nature of emoji use in modern contexts, where they are used not just to convey emotion, but to subvert political barriers in online communication.

References

Abidin, C. (2018, September 3). Between art and application: Special issue on emoji epistemology. First Monday, 23(9).

de Seta, G. (2018, September 3). Biaoqing: The circulation of emoticons, emoji, stickers, and custom images on Chinese digital media platforms. First Monday, 23(9).

Highfield, T. (2018, September 3). Emoji Hashtags//hashtag emoji: Of platforms, visual affect, and discursive flexibility. First Monday, 23(9).

Huang, E. (2017, March 29). Chinese people mean something very different when they send you a smiley emoji. Quartz, Retrieved from https://qz.com/944693/chinese-people-mean-something-very-different-when-they-send-you-a-smiley-emoji/

Jaeger, S. R. (2017, April 24). Dominant meanings of facial emoji: Insights from Chinese consumers and comparison with meanings from internet resources. Elsevier, 62, 275-283. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2017.04.009

Marcel Danesi, 2017. The semiotics of emoji: The rise of visual language in the age of the Internet. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

McCulloch, G. (2015, April 9). Will We All Speak Emoji Language in a Couple Years? Mental Floss, Retrieved from https://mentalfloss.com/article/62584/will-we-all-speak-emoji-language-couple-years

Rugnetta, M. (Producer), & Brown, K. (Director). (2016). Can You Speak Emoji?[Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRNVf-1M7xQ&feature=youtu.be