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Essay / Emojis are not a complete language although they are important today
The digital age has brought many technological innovations. Emoji creation is one such innovation that has remained a staple of language use in the digital arena since its introduction in the 1990s (Alshenqeeti). Indeed, one could also say that the use of emojis has become so widespread that, in theory, entire (digital) conversations could take place using just these digital pictograms. Interestingly, emojis carry many characteristics of modern language and sometimes seem to have universal meaning. If this is the case, then emojis could be considered a language in their own right. However, it is more likely that they are an effective way to support the otherwise somewhat emotionless language and tone used on social media and messaging platforms, but lack some of the key features required to make it a real language. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayEmojis help enhance or support language in many ways. Primarily, they add to the emotion conveyed by the writer in a situation where the reader otherwise has no other cues (visual or auditory) to connect with the writer's meaning. For example, we could use the “tears of laughter” emoji after writing “that was so funny!” » when reacting to a funny incident to make it clear that he/she found it extremely funny. In this case, the reader will not take it as sarcasm or irony. However, if the writer was being sarcastic, perhaps they could add the "rolling eyes" emoji or the "smiling face" emoji to indicate that they are being sarcastic. In some cases, the writer doesn't even need to use words to convey meaning. Emoticons such as the “Christmas tree” emoji and the “gift” emoji could be used together to convey the idea of “Christmas present” or a combination of the “walking man” emoji and the “Hospital” emoji could be used to mean “going to the hospital”. It is therefore clear that emojis could be used for the purpose of conveying short messages as well as to support language. An interesting emoji to analyze in this regard is the “eggplant” emoji which is simply a purple vegetable. However, given its phallic shape and the widespread use of dating apps such as Tinder, Grindr or Bumble, it seems to have taken on a new meaning. In fact, the American Dialect Society even named this emoji the “Most Notable Emoji” of 2015 (Dictionary.com). The emoji is now primarily used for sexual innuendo (Dictionary.com) and a parallel could be drawn between its multiple meanings. and polysemous words in linguistics. As it is used to convey sexual intention and imply sexual activity, it is possible to identify its relationship to speech acts and its implicature. In this regard, the smiley face emoji can also be used in many contexts: to express the use of sarcasm, to indicate conceit, to indicate a shared inside joke and sexual innuendo. This emoji then becomes an indicator of tone, mood and implicit meaning. However, emojis may not always be effective when used alone. For example, by analyzing a corpus of over 30 million tweets in British and American English, Italian and Spanish, it was found that not all emojis have a universal meaning and that the.