Number of Posts: 6
Posts 1 - 6
Will emoji become a new language?
Newspaper | BBC News
Date | 13.10.2015
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | emojis, grammar, language threat
Summary | Linguist Neil Cohn explains why emojis cannot be considered a new language and why they shouldn't be seen as a threat to language. Emojis don't have the same characteristics as other languages. Emojis are used to complement words, as we would use gestures along speech. Sometimes, people use long sequences of emojis to communicate, but they are not a language since they lack a grammar. Cohn talks about his book The Visual Language of Comics and explains what visual languages are. The visual language of comics does not work the same way as emojis; it's a language that has a grammar.
Image Description | Photograph of a series of emojis on a screen, photograph of a hand gesture, sreenshots of text message conversations with emojis, and photograph of a library of comic books.
Image Tags | emojis, hand(s), smartphone, text
Emojis on council tax bills: Council puts crying face on residents' statements
Newspaper | Telegraph
Date | 14.12.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | emojis, language threat, law, politeness
Summary | Lambeth citizens are getting emojis on their tax correspondence with their local authorities. To be exact: crying face emojis. One resident tweeted her tax calculations with a crying face emoji next to het balance due. Many find this distasteful since many people struggle to pay their taxes and emojis are just inappropriate for government communication. Emojis are one of the fastest growing languages ever recorded in history and they have surpassed their precursors, Egyptian hieroglyphs, which took centuries to develop.
Image Description | Tweet showing the tax document with emoji.
Image Tags | emojis, Twitter
Emoji invasion: the end of language as we know it :/
Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 25.6.2015
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | emojis, language threat, misunderstanding
Summary | Emojis are spreading rapidly and are becoming a new language. It has become hard to differentiate between verbal and written communication. Emojis have become popular because they allow people to express things they would normally express through body language. Text messages can be misunderstood, so adding an emoji at the end of a text can clarify it. Is this new virtual language replacing real language? The author of the article claims that it is not. Language is always changing and evolving.
Image Description | Photograph of an emoji typewriter.
Image Tags | emojis, typewriter
The rise and rise of emoji social networks
Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 12.9.2014
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | emojis, language threat, social media, word/writing
Summary | The end of the word is close; three social media want to introduce 100% emoji conversations. Emojicate was the first network that tried to revolutionize our communication. Emojili is the real leader in terms of all-emoji network. The app creators state that Emojili started as a joke. Nowadays, more apps are image-oriented (e.g. focused on photo-sharing), and even Instagram posts are largely emojified.
Image Description | Image of an emoji.
Image Tags | emojis
Emoji is dragging us back to the dark ages – and all we can do is smile
Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 27.5.2015
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | emojis, language threat
Summary | The fact that the new "emoji language" is expanding fast is viewed as a return to the dark ages. According to the author of the article, humanity is going downhill with this new visual language. Young people seem to prefer using emojis rather than words to express themselves (according to a survey). The author claims that images limit people's expression compared to words which are more adaptable. He also compares emojis with hieroglyphics and the Egyptian civilization.
Image Description | Two digital images representing different sets of emojis, and photograph of Egyptian hieroglyphics.
Image Tags | emojis, hieroglyphics
:) them or :( them, emojis make our messages feel more like us
Newspaper | The Guardian
Date | 14.6.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | emojis, language threat
Summary | Some people are happy about the new 'emojify' feature that Apple offers, and some people don't like it and think that future generations won't be able to understand the English language. Famous cognitivist Stephen Pinker argues in favor of such communicative features; people adapt their language to the medium they use. If people text or tweet, it doesn't mean they won't be able to communicate in other ways; the same holds true for emojis. Emojis are useful to convey information that is hard to transmit via text (e.g. tone of voice, facial expressions). Having representative emojis (e.g. different skin colors) is also important since they help construct users' identity. Some people are not totally happy with the set of emojis offered now; they still convey certain ideologies and norms (e.g. about gender).
Image Description | Photograph of a woman in a room full of emojis; she has a big 'smiling face with sunglasses emoji' on her head.
Image Tags | emojis, female(s)
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