#emojis — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #emojis, aggregated by home.social.
-
New publication on the linguistic (specifically, grammatical) properties of #emojis , based on a student's Bachelor thesis. It took two years from the conference presentation to publication, but now it's finally out. #linguistics #openAccess #writing https://doi.org/10.36824/2024-graf-reis
-
New publication on the linguistic (specifically, grammatical) properties of #emojis , based on a student's Bachelor thesis. It took two years from the conference presentation to publication, but now it's finally out. #linguistics #openAccess #writing https://doi.org/10.36824/2024-graf-reis
-
Ah yes, the existential crisis of #emojis 🤯—because clearly, the world can't function without Zuckerberg's pixelated emotional roller coaster 🎢. Between the squinty eyes and the overly specific Facebook reactions, we're just a mosaic of misunderstood feelings plastered onto a digital facade 💁♂️.
https://rybakov.com/blog/zuckerberg_emojis/ #existentialcrisis #digitalcommunication #Facebookreactions #misunderstoodfeelings #pixelatedemotions #HackerNews #ngated -
Ah yes, the existential crisis of #emojis 🤯—because clearly, the world can't function without Zuckerberg's pixelated emotional roller coaster 🎢. Between the squinty eyes and the overly specific Facebook reactions, we're just a mosaic of misunderstood feelings plastered onto a digital facade 💁♂️.
https://rybakov.com/blog/zuckerberg_emojis/ #existentialcrisis #digitalcommunication #Facebookreactions #misunderstoodfeelings #pixelatedemotions #HackerNews #ngated -
European Central Bank's survey on the new #Euros design goes all-in on the #emojis 🤑 : https://surveys.ecb.europa.eu/10b/neweuro/
-
European Central Bank's survey on the new #Euros design goes all-in on the #emojis 🤑 : https://surveys.ecb.europa.eu/10b/neweuro/
-
Le visage craquelé remplace le visage aux yeux plissés dans les emojis de 2027 http://dlvr.it/TTctzk #Emojis #Unicode
-
Le visage craquelé remplace le visage aux yeux plissés dans les emojis de 2027 http://dlvr.it/TTctzk #Emojis #Unicode
-
😀 Unicode ya tiene listos los nuevos emojis de 2027. Descubre qué significan los nueve diseños y cuándo podrás usarlos.
-
😀 Unicode ya tiene listos los nuevos emojis de 2027. Descubre qué significan los nueve diseños y cuándo podrás usarlos.
-
World Emoji Day is almost over. Why did I build Emoji Anki?
As often, it was a silly idea. I thought that learning language vocabulary with emojis would be fun. I was already using Ankidroid for spaced repetition; there were a few Anki decks with emojis, but most were incomplete, or did not allow chosing categories, there was (very) limited language choice.
Emoji Anki uses the publicly available Unicode CLDR data, that has annotations for every emojis, in 150+ languages.
As a side effect, another fun thing you can do with it is learn country flags.
#EmojiAnki #WorldEmojiDay #Unicode #Emojis #LanguageLearning #Anki
-
World Emoji Day is almost over. Why did I build Emoji Anki?
As often, it was a silly idea. I thought that learning language vocabulary with emojis would be fun. I was already using Ankidroid for spaced repetition; there were a few Anki decks with emojis, but most were incomplete, or did not allow chosing categories, there was (very) limited language choice.
Emoji Anki uses the publicly available Unicode CLDR data, that has annotations for every emojis, in 150+ languages.
As a side effect, another fun thing you can do with it is learn country flags.
#EmojiAnki #WorldEmojiDay #Unicode #Emojis #LanguageLearning #Anki
-
@ancientsounds In the case of emojis, we have a fixed inventory so it’s actually easier. If your corpus is large enough (like the over 2 billion tweets we used), it will be clear which emojis occur the least, and it’s not (only) the newest ones! The WhatsApp corpus is much smaller, so it won’t really work there.
It’s funny that you also can’t really ask people “Which emojis do you use the least” because we definitely don’t have any awareness of that 😅 #emojis #linguistics -
@ancientsounds In the case of emojis, we have a fixed inventory so it’s actually easier. If your corpus is large enough (like the over 2 billion tweets we used), it will be clear which emojis occur the least, and it’s not (only) the newest ones! The WhatsApp corpus is much smaller, so it won’t really work there.
It’s funny that you also can’t really ask people “Which emojis do you use the least” because we definitely don’t have any awareness of that 😅 #emojis #linguistics -
As this thread is slowing down (but feel free to keep the questions coming), this is also a great time to plug the public "Linguistics of Emojis" Zotero library, which we maintain. Over 300 scientific works on the linguistics of emojis - check it out! 🤓 #emojis #linguistics #WorldEmojiDay https://www.zotero.org/groups/2613859/linguistics_of_emojis/library
-
As this thread is slowing down (but feel free to keep the questions coming), this is also a great time to plug the public "Linguistics of Emojis" Zotero library, which we maintain. Over 300 scientific works on the linguistics of emojis - check it out! 🤓 #emojis #linguistics #WorldEmojiDay https://www.zotero.org/groups/2613859/linguistics_of_emojis/library
-
@ricci Yes, the default (not neutral) yellow skin tone is read as white. This can also be seen in cartoons like the Simpsons, where all characters are yellow except for (initially just) Apu.
There are some great studies by (Robertson et al. 2018, 2020, ...) on emoji skin tones. They compared New York City with London and Johannesburg - everywhere non-white people used skin tone modifiers the most. That's also how they showed that most users employ the skin tone modifiers to closely reflect their own skin tone - with some variations which they can explain, for example to better match hair color as well or because the darkest emoji skin tone washes out the facial features of many emojis (so is dispreferred). #emojis #linguistics #WorldEmojiDay https://doi.org/10.1145/3377479 -
@ricci Yes, the default (not neutral) yellow skin tone is read as white. This can also be seen in cartoons like the Simpsons, where all characters are yellow except for (initially just) Apu.
There are some great studies by (Robertson et al. 2018, 2020, ...) on emoji skin tones. They compared New York City with London and Johannesburg - everywhere non-white people used skin tone modifiers the most. That's also how they showed that most users employ the skin tone modifiers to closely reflect their own skin tone - with some variations which they can explain, for example to better match hair color as well or because the darkest emoji skin tone washes out the facial features of many emojis (so is dispreferred). #emojis #linguistics #WorldEmojiDay https://doi.org/10.1145/3377479 -
"Are there any other examples of written notations for body language?
I'm aware of "dance notation", which is roughly in the same direction, I suppose." - I didn't know dance notation, will have to look into it!
There is an increasing amount of work in #linguistics on gesture, and there are some inventories of #gesture based on basic components like location, hand and finger configuration, movement. We have a research cluster on Visual Communcation where we investigate the commonalities between visual forms of communication such as emojis, gestures, and sign language: @vicom
Sign language of course has notational forms as well, and in this dictionary of German Sign Language, signs can be searched by location, hand form, etc.: https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/korpusdict/overview/index-dgs.html #emojis #WorldEmojiDay -
"Are there any other examples of written notations for body language?
I'm aware of "dance notation", which is roughly in the same direction, I suppose." - I didn't know dance notation, will have to look into it!
There is an increasing amount of work in #linguistics on gesture, and there are some inventories of #gesture based on basic components like location, hand and finger configuration, movement. We have a research cluster on Visual Communcation where we investigate the commonalities between visual forms of communication such as emojis, gestures, and sign language: @vicom
Sign language of course has notational forms as well, and in this dictionary of German Sign Language, signs can be searched by location, hand form, etc.: https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/korpusdict/overview/index-dgs.html #emojis #WorldEmojiDay -
Actually, should the plural be "emoji" or "emojis" ?? 😵💫 - Both are used frequently! I think "emoji" reminds us of other loan words that end in "-i" in the plural, like "celli" or "radii" or "tori" or all the pastas. That's why many people feel that "emoji" is plural enough 😅 . But the word is from Japanese, and is called "emoji" in the singular, from "e" = picture and "moji" = character. (In contrast to "emot-icon", the word "emoji" doesn't have anything to do with emotion!) So my vote is for the regular English plural "-s", yielding "emojis" ✅ #emojis #linguistics #WorldEmojiDay
-
Actually, should the plural be "emoji" or "emojis" ?? 😵💫 - Both are used frequently! I think "emoji" reminds us of other loan words that end in "-i" in the plural, like "celli" or "radii" or "tori" or all the pastas. That's why many people feel that "emoji" is plural enough 😅 . But the word is from Japanese, and is called "emoji" in the singular, from "e" = picture and "moji" = character. (In contrast to "emot-icon", the word "emoji" doesn't have anything to do with emotion!) So my vote is for the regular English plural "-s", yielding "emojis" ✅ #emojis #linguistics #WorldEmojiDay
-
Another famous case is the grimacing face 😬 (which I personally like a lot). Initially its design varied widely between platforms: It looked like a toothy (but happy) grin 😁 on some platforms, but like the pained grimace on others - so there was a lot of potential for misunderstanding. In such a case, the design is then usually adapted in a later version to get a better match with other platforms. #emojis #linguistics #WorldEmojiDay
-
Another famous case is the grimacing face 😬 (which I personally like a lot). Initially its design varied widely between platforms: It looked like a toothy (but happy) grin 😁 on some platforms, but like the pained grimace on others - so there was a lot of potential for misunderstanding. In such a case, the design is then usually adapted in a later version to get a better match with other platforms. #emojis #linguistics #WorldEmojiDay
-
"Some designs of emojis are very different for the same codepoint, especially the ones depicting emotions/reactions. Examples coming to mind are 😨, 🔫. What are your thoughts on this?" - The (water) pistol 🔫 was originally a hand gun which looked a lot more real. In response to its frequent use in criminal or other unsavory contexts (e.g., as a threat), most platforms replaced it with the colorful plastic toy gun design in 2018. (In 2024, Elon Musk had it turned back into a realistic hand gun for the Twemoji design 🙄)
I'm torn. On the one hand, I don't think we can stay on top of all potential uses of emojis (or should even try to limit them) and people who want to use emojis for threats probably can still do so. On the other hand, I do find it rather hard to imagine that the green plastic 🔫 could be used as a threat... so... I guess good job, designers/tech firms? #emojis #linguistics #WorldEmojiDay
https://emojipedia.org/pistol#designs -
"Some designs of emojis are very different for the same codepoint, especially the ones depicting emotions/reactions. Examples coming to mind are 😨, 🔫. What are your thoughts on this?" - The (water) pistol 🔫 was originally a hand gun which looked a lot more real. In response to its frequent use in criminal or other unsavory contexts (e.g., as a threat), most platforms replaced it with the colorful plastic toy gun design in 2018. (In 2024, Elon Musk had it turned back into a realistic hand gun for the Twemoji design 🙄)
I'm torn. On the one hand, I don't think we can stay on top of all potential uses of emojis (or should even try to limit them) and people who want to use emojis for threats probably can still do so. On the other hand, I do find it rather hard to imagine that the green plastic 🔫 could be used as a threat... so... I guess good job, designers/tech firms? #emojis #linguistics #WorldEmojiDay
https://emojipedia.org/pistol#designs -
🎨🤖 Google, in its infinite wisdom, thinks you need an #AI to design your next smiley face because clearly, your existing #emojis lack the depth of a Picasso. Meanwhile, actual #communication happens with gifs and memes, but sure, let's pretend #3D emojis are the future of human interaction. 🙄📱
https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/platforms/android/world-emoji-day-noto-3d/ #Digital #Art #Meme #Culture #Tech #Trends #HackerNews #ngated -
🎨🤖 Google, in its infinite wisdom, thinks you need an #AI to design your next smiley face because clearly, your existing #emojis lack the depth of a Picasso. Meanwhile, actual #communication happens with gifs and memes, but sure, let's pretend #3D emojis are the future of human interaction. 🙄📱
https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/platforms/android/world-emoji-day-noto-3d/ #Digital #Art #Meme #Culture #Tech #Trends #HackerNews #ngated -
“Do you think emojis will ever become part of formal language? Are we going to see emojis in laws or letters from the pension fund?” - Emojis are mainly used in informal language, because (or that’s why?) one of their main functions is to signal closeness, familiarity and a lack of hierarchy between the conversation participants. This is also the reason why a lack of emojis from a personal chat message may trigger questions like “what have I done?!”, because it could signal that the friendly relationship is disturbed. So I think emojis wouldn’t be used in legal code. But in official letters, maybe! I once received an email from a university administrator with a ☺️ and I appreciated it a lot.
#emojis #linguistics #WorldEmojiDay -
“Do you think emojis will ever become part of formal language? Are we going to see emojis in laws or letters from the pension fund?” - Emojis are mainly used in informal language, because (or that’s why?) one of their main functions is to signal closeness, familiarity and a lack of hierarchy between the conversation participants. This is also the reason why a lack of emojis from a personal chat message may trigger questions like “what have I done?!”, because it could signal that the friendly relationship is disturbed. So I think emojis wouldn’t be used in legal code. But in official letters, maybe! I once received an email from a university administrator with a ☺️ and I appreciated it a lot.
#emojis #linguistics #WorldEmojiDay -
“If you were an emoji, what emoji would you be?” - Hm, I think I’d pick 👩💻 because that represents how I spend my days the best.
Representation and diversity is an important topic when it comes to emojis. Studies show that the skin tone modifiers 🤷🏻♀️🤷🏼♀️🤷🏽♀️🤷🏾♀️🤷🏿♀️ are primarily used for self representation. And many groups had to fight for their emojis: hijabi women, people with disabilities, redheads, people with curly hair. It is still difficult to show “all” of society in emojis, because human diversity is much more variable than we can show in little pictures: Where I can just say “family” in English and may mean many different constellations, in an emoji I’d have to decide on the number, gender and skin color of all the family members, and that doesn’t even begin to cover all the facets. A real language is much more flexible that way. #emojis #linguistics #WorldEmojiDay -
“If you were an emoji, what emoji would you be?” - Hm, I think I’d pick 👩💻 because that represents how I spend my days the best.
Representation and diversity is an important topic when it comes to emojis. Studies show that the skin tone modifiers 🤷🏻♀️🤷🏼♀️🤷🏽♀️🤷🏾♀️🤷🏿♀️ are primarily used for self representation. And many groups had to fight for their emojis: hijabi women, people with disabilities, redheads, people with curly hair. It is still difficult to show “all” of society in emojis, because human diversity is much more variable than we can show in little pictures: Where I can just say “family” in English and may mean many different constellations, in an emoji I’d have to decide on the number, gender and skin color of all the family members, and that doesn’t even begin to cover all the facets. A real language is much more flexible that way. #emojis #linguistics #WorldEmojiDay -
quick break for dinner - will get to all your questions later tonight! ❤️ #emojis
-
quick break for dinner - will get to all your questions later tonight! ❤️ #emojis
-
"is there (still) a lot of use of "signage" emojis like 🏪 or even more abstract 🛅?" - These complex ones are not so frequently used. BUT emojis are often used for signs in real life (= meat world, not digitally). I have a huge collection of photos I put together with the help of students. I think emojis are particularly good for this because such signs are often about rules, what we're not allowed to do or supposed to do. And emojis "soften" this face-threat (being told what to do) a bit, by being cute and colorful and generally perceived as positive. #emojis #linguistics #WorldEmojiDay
-
"is there (still) a lot of use of "signage" emojis like 🏪 or even more abstract 🛅?" - These complex ones are not so frequently used. BUT emojis are often used for signs in real life (= meat world, not digitally). I have a huge collection of photos I put together with the help of students. I think emojis are particularly good for this because such signs are often about rules, what we're not allowed to do or supposed to do. And emojis "soften" this face-threat (being told what to do) a bit, by being cute and colorful and generally perceived as positive. #emojis #linguistics #WorldEmojiDay
-
Is emoji interpretation just a "fun" summer topic, or does emoji misinterpretation ever become serious, like in court discussions? - In face there have been several cases both in North America and Europe where emoji meanings were negotiated in court! I keep a collection of them because it's a nice intersection with my alter ego, the "forensic" linguist. For example, in cases from Canada and Bavaria, judges had to decide whether a thumbs-up 👍 in a chat was meant as a signal of agreement (to a contract or contract amendment), or whether (like the senders argued) it constituted only an acknowledgement of receipt of the message. In both cases, the context was super important - how did the parties interact before, what else was said in the chat, etc. Interesting! #emojis #linguistics #WorldEmojiDay
-
Is emoji interpretation just a "fun" summer topic, or does emoji misinterpretation ever become serious, like in court discussions? - In face there have been several cases both in North America and Europe where emoji meanings were negotiated in court! I keep a collection of them because it's a nice intersection with my alter ego, the "forensic" linguist. For example, in cases from Canada and Bavaria, judges had to decide whether a thumbs-up 👍 in a chat was meant as a signal of agreement (to a contract or contract amendment), or whether (like the senders argued) it constituted only an acknowledgement of receipt of the message. In both cases, the context was super important - how did the parties interact before, what else was said in the chat, etc. Interesting! #emojis #linguistics #WorldEmojiDay
-
Does being an emoji researcher make me more wary to use them - like am I watching my emoji use all the time? - I'd say the opposite is true, I feel more free and whimsical in using emojis, as I see them all the time in different contexts, and I can easily pretend to just use them ironically or "for work" 🤩 #emojis #linguistics #worldEmojiDay
-
Does being an emoji researcher make me more wary to use them - like am I watching my emoji use all the time? - I'd say the opposite is true, I feel more free and whimsical in using emojis, as I see them all the time in different contexts, and I can easily pretend to just use them ironically or "for work" 🤩 #emojis #linguistics #worldEmojiDay
-
"Do you know of any unexpected pattern of emoji usage? For example I'd expect younger folks to use emoji more than older folks and private communication to use it more than business... But maybe my assumptions are wrong or there is something else interesting?" - Yes generally our studies show that younger ppl use emojis more than older (and women a bit more than men). But in class with my undergraduates, they recently often tell me "I don't use emojis at all". I must say I don't fully believe them (maybe they don't even notice all the little hearts anymore?) and I haven't been able to show this in studies, but it's an interesting anecdotal data point I'd like to know more about!
Also, a student of mine recently asked teenagers (13 and 16yos) about their emoji interpretations. And surprisingly to us, these almost entirely match the data we already have for adults. Even for some like 🙃 and 😉 that I thought were changing (and just told you that younger people see them differently 😬). So that was a bit weird to me 😅 #emojis #WorldEmojiDay #linguistics -
"Do you know of any unexpected pattern of emoji usage? For example I'd expect younger folks to use emoji more than older folks and private communication to use it more than business... But maybe my assumptions are wrong or there is something else interesting?" - Yes generally our studies show that younger ppl use emojis more than older (and women a bit more than men). But in class with my undergraduates, they recently often tell me "I don't use emojis at all". I must say I don't fully believe them (maybe they don't even notice all the little hearts anymore?) and I haven't been able to show this in studies, but it's an interesting anecdotal data point I'd like to know more about!
Also, a student of mine recently asked teenagers (13 and 16yos) about their emoji interpretations. And surprisingly to us, these almost entirely match the data we already have for adults. Even for some like 🙃 and 😉 that I thought were changing (and just told you that younger people see them differently 😬). So that was a bit weird to me 😅 #emojis #WorldEmojiDay #linguistics -
Do young and old people interpret (or use) emojis differently? - Yes, to some extent. Actually with most emojis we see a huge overlap in interpretation and also use. But there are some frequent emojis which are, on average, interpreted differently by older and younger people in our studies. For example, the slighly smiling face 🙂 and its upside down variant 🙃 are seen as more positive by older participants, while the little dot-eyes are seen as cold and not authentic ("psychopath eyes") by younger people. Similarly, the winking smiley 😉 is used by the older group to mark any jokes or fun (similarly to the original ;-) emoticon), and younger people find it often completely inappropriate and sexually suggestive #emojis #WorldEmojiDay #linguistics
-
Do young and old people interpret (or use) emojis differently? - Yes, to some extent. Actually with most emojis we see a huge overlap in interpretation and also use. But there are some frequent emojis which are, on average, interpreted differently by older and younger people in our studies. For example, the slighly smiling face 🙂 and its upside down variant 🙃 are seen as more positive by older participants, while the little dot-eyes are seen as cold and not authentic ("psychopath eyes") by younger people. Similarly, the winking smiley 😉 is used by the older group to mark any jokes or fun (similarly to the original ;-) emoticon), and younger people find it often completely inappropriate and sexually suggestive #emojis #WorldEmojiDay #linguistics
-
"what about double meanings like in 🍆🥦 and 🍑?" - Ah yes, these ambiguities are very famous. In order to get a new emoji approved nowadays, it's even helpful to be able to point out additional meanings and usages that are metaphorical in this way. The Unicode consortium is wary of introducing too many new emojis, and so those that can "carry more weight" and fill many needs at once are preferred.
In internet corpora the vegetable-related uses of these emojis are probably quite rare (but I must admit I haven't checked yet) - and the metaphorical meanings probably dominate. Though there are also many insider uses of emojis that aren't super widely known outside of their circle. This is comparable to other kinds of linguistic codes or innovations (e.g. in youth language) and not limited to only emojis. #WorldEmojiDay #emojis #linguistics -
"what about double meanings like in 🍆🥦 and 🍑?" - Ah yes, these ambiguities are very famous. In order to get a new emoji approved nowadays, it's even helpful to be able to point out additional meanings and usages that are metaphorical in this way. The Unicode consortium is wary of introducing too many new emojis, and so those that can "carry more weight" and fill many needs at once are preferred.
In internet corpora the vegetable-related uses of these emojis are probably quite rare (but I must admit I haven't checked yet) - and the metaphorical meanings probably dominate. Though there are also many insider uses of emojis that aren't super widely known outside of their circle. This is comparable to other kinds of linguistic codes or innovations (e.g. in youth language) and not limited to only emojis. #WorldEmojiDay #emojis #linguistics -
"What's your favourite emoticon or emoji and why?" - How can you ask me to choose amongst my babies??! 😭😭😭
There are some emojis I actively avoid for visceral reasons (couldn't explain why) and I'm partial to 😅 , 💪 , and 🤷♀️ , because they're just so useful. But I'd probably pick the otter floating on its back, because I think that's just design genius 🦦 :aawwww: #emojis #linguistics #WorldEmojiDay -
"What's your favourite emoticon or emoji and why?" - How can you ask me to choose amongst my babies??! 😭😭😭
There are some emojis I actively avoid for visceral reasons (couldn't explain why) and I'm partial to 😅 , 💪 , and 🤷♀️ , because they're just so useful. But I'd probably pick the otter floating on its back, because I think that's just design genius 🦦 :aawwww: #emojis #linguistics #WorldEmojiDay -
"which emojis are used the least often?" - Great question, and we rarely find data on this! But luckily, we studied this at least for two corpora with German users (and admittedly only for face emojis). So: Many object or symbol emojis (from the "tail end" of the emoji list) are very, very rarely used. Overall, faces and hearts are the most frequent. Among the face emojis, we compiled the full list of usages from a huge Twitter corpus (semi-public communication, 2014-2022) and a much small WhatsApp chat corpus (private or group communication). You can find the frequencies in this table linked below (and sort by frequency by clicking on the column). The least frequent face emoji in the large corpus was the "frowning face with open mouth" 😦, which most people have never seen before. Personally, I think it's pretty ambiguous and not very useful, as there are better emojis for anything it might express. #emojis #linguistics #WorldEmojiDay
https://tscheffler.github.io/2024-Face-Emoji-Norming/ratings.html -
"which emojis are used the least often?" - Great question, and we rarely find data on this! But luckily, we studied this at least for two corpora with German users (and admittedly only for face emojis). So: Many object or symbol emojis (from the "tail end" of the emoji list) are very, very rarely used. Overall, faces and hearts are the most frequent. Among the face emojis, we compiled the full list of usages from a huge Twitter corpus (semi-public communication, 2014-2022) and a much small WhatsApp chat corpus (private or group communication). You can find the frequencies in this table linked below (and sort by frequency by clicking on the column). The least frequent face emoji in the large corpus was the "frowning face with open mouth" 😦, which most people have never seen before. Personally, I think it's pretty ambiguous and not very useful, as there are better emojis for anything it might express. #emojis #linguistics #WorldEmojiDay
https://tscheffler.github.io/2024-Face-Emoji-Norming/ratings.html -
"what are the two readings of 🙃?" - Roughly, one group sees this emoji as a whimsical, funny alternative to the "regular" smiley 🙂 , which they also read as positive ("happy, smiling"). The other group sees it as sarcastic, passive-aggressive, or uncomfortable. There are many nuances but those are the two groups. #emojis #WorldEmojiDay #linguistics
-
"what are the two readings of 🙃?" - Roughly, one group sees this emoji as a whimsical, funny alternative to the "regular" smiley 🙂 , which they also read as positive ("happy, smiling"). The other group sees it as sarcastic, passive-aggressive, or uncomfortable. There are many nuances but those are the two groups. #emojis #WorldEmojiDay #linguistics
-
🤔 Are #emojis a universal language? - No, for two reasons. 1) They are not a language, as they do not show the properties that human languages have: grammatical structure and free combinatorics, enabling us to express complex thoughts. 2) They are not really universal. While many emojis are interpreted similarly all over the world (I guess it's pretty clear what one could mean by 🍕 ), some emoji meanings are closely tied to cultural assumptions (e.g., some of the gestures 👍 , buildings ⛩️ , food), and others are very context-dependent and might follow different conventions in various groups, including linguistic or regional groups (e.g., 🙃 for which we found strong differences between populations in Norway/US vs. Germany/Bulgaria). #WorldEmojiDay #linguistics
-
🤔 Are #emojis a universal language? - No, for two reasons. 1) They are not a language, as they do not show the properties that human languages have: grammatical structure and free combinatorics, enabling us to express complex thoughts. 2) They are not really universal. While many emojis are interpreted similarly all over the world (I guess it's pretty clear what one could mean by 🍕 ), some emoji meanings are closely tied to cultural assumptions (e.g., some of the gestures 👍 , buildings ⛩️ , food), and others are very context-dependent and might follow different conventions in various groups, including linguistic or regional groups (e.g., 🙃 for which we found strong differences between populations in Norway/US vs. Germany/Bulgaria). #WorldEmojiDay #linguistics
