🧐 #AMA on #emojis for #WorldEmojiDay ❗ #linguistics
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"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 #linguisticsDoes 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
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@tschfflr what about double meanings like in
🥦 and 
?@tschfflr or probably one meaning - but not exactly the one intended...
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@tschfflr or probably one meaning - but not exactly the one intended...
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@tschfflr is there (still) a lot of use of "signage" emojis like
or even more abstract 
? -
@Kuchenschwarte "Why are emojis standardly not animated?" - a complicated question. The Unicode standard lists a code point for each emoji (and other symbols, too), as well as, roughly, its meaning (really a short name). You can see the full list below. E.g., codepoint "U+1F601" corresponds to "beaming face with smiling eyes" or
.
You can think of the look of that emoji on your individual platform as a kind of "font" - the platforms are free to implement the look of each emoji according to their house style. This is similar to the character "A" looking different in different newspapers, platforms, or styles. In most Western platforms emojis so far are not animated. But in many widely used Chinese platforms (WeChat and especially Weibo, for example), many emojis are animated. So I guess it's a question of style. #emojis #linguistics #WorldEmojiDay@tschfflr @Kuchenschwarte Google has a set of animated emoji, and their designer has written about the unique design challenges
https://googlefonts.github.io/noto-emoji-animation/ https://jenniferdaniel.substack.com/p/emoji-that-can-dance -
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
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"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 -
@tschfflr love the thread! 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?
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️ However, there is some evidence that #emojis or at least symbols similar to emoticons were used before the internet. Many people know "rebus" examples where words are replaced by little icons like in this children's book. And I've seen an example of a hand-written letter with emoji-like faces as annotations (but I can't find it right now on my computer ) #emojis #linguistics #WorldEmojiDay@tschfflr Interessant, dass es "Eichkätzchen" sagt. Dieses Wort kannte ich bisher nur im Dialekt, aus südlicherer Region.
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@tschfflr If you were an emoji, what emoji would you be and why? 🧐
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Two other writing systems are often compared to #emojis: #Chinese characters and #hieroglyphs. @Kuchenschwarte
I'm not really an expert on either, but I did study Chinese in university and recently had a long conversation with an Egyptologist colleague (who gave me the 101 on hieroglyphs
). Egyptian hieroglyphic writing was an alphabet (ie, each character roughly corresponds to a sound like p, t, k). So while the hieroglyphs resemble objects, they were not read as such, at least not in the later stages. (Btw. Latin characters also developed from picture-like objects in many cases, but it's been a long time since these pictures were recognizable)
Thus, emojis do not resemble Egyptian hieroglyphs in my view - each emoji corresponds most closely to a word or concept, not a single letter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_hieroglyphs #emojis #linguistics #WorldEmojiDay@tschfflr Speaking of writing systems and emoji, based on how sign language users would sketch when taking notes for a signed presentation or planning their own, Michael Filhol proposed a notation for sign utterances that focuses on semantics rather than phonology. It involves the use of emoji-like elements for semantic concepts that can then be slotted into relational structures, (all of which can then be converted into an established formalism for Avatar-based outputs, too).
Source: https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/24016.html -
@tschfflr Speaking of writing systems and emoji, based on how sign language users would sketch when taking notes for a signed presentation or planning their own, Michael Filhol proposed a notation for sign utterances that focuses on semantics rather than phonology. It involves the use of emoji-like elements for semantic concepts that can then be slotted into relational structures, (all of which can then be converted into an established formalism for Avatar-based outputs, too).
Source: https://www.sign-lang.uni-hamburg.de/lrec/pub/24016.html@MarcSchulder cool!
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@tschfflr Indeed. I especially appreciate how it’s corpus-driven, building on observations of how (French) signers actually do note taking.
(edit: typo) -
"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“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 modifiers️️️️️ 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“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 -
@tschfflr Some designs of emojis are very different (not just depending on platform but even between versions) for the same codepoint, especially the ones depicting emotions/reactions. Examples coming to mind are
, 
. What are your thoughts on this? -
“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"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#designsAnother 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 -
M malte@radikal.social shared this topic
