Meaning of emoji | Babel Free

Definitions

A digital graphic icon with a unique code point used to represent a concept, object, person, animal or place, originally used in Japanese text messaging but since adopted internationally in other contexts such as social media. Or, by extension, any non-standard emoji-like image inserted inline in text, i.e. an image emoticon.

Equivalents

Examples

“In order to communicate quickly, many mobile phone users use emoji characters (similar to emoticons) while sending messages. Service providers have also created a set of emoji characters and have added support for it.”

“One of the most exciting announcements at Twitter's Chirp conference this week was "Annotated Tweets". […] The data attached doesn't have to be simple text. Twitter suggests examples such as MIDI data (for music) or emoji (for fancy emoticons).”

“So what do a bunch of dudes with iPhones do when they haven't eaten all day, are waiting at your restaurant table, starving, annoyed, and need to pass the time. They innovate. They bring emojis to life. In public. […] Give it a shot – it's probably the one semi-practical thing you can do with an emoji[…].”

“Like any natural language grammar, the distribution of emoji in texts, as well as the construction of phrases and sentences with emoji symbols in them, implies a systematic structure, otherwise it would be impossible to literally "read" the emoji texts.”

“At present, Emoji functions not to replace the linguistic mode, but to complement it – the good old-fashioned English word is not going to be in danger any time soon. Emoji enables, arguably for the first time, a multimodal component to text-based digital communication, providing a code that fills out the communicative message in the linguistic mode, conveyed through text.”

“Apple wants to introduce new emojis to better represent people with disabilities. A guide dog, a wheelchair user and prosthetic limbs are just some of the symbols it's suggested.”

“When receiving a message like “We need to talk :(,” the emoticon implies that the conversation will involve bad or sad news. But a message like “I’m going to kill you :)” is most likely sarcastic. With text communication, in particular, it can be incredibly hard to understand intentionality — especially when there’s humor and sarcasm involved. Because of this, emoji and emoticons can be extremely useful to attach an element of feeling and emotion to the message.”

“In addition to promoting efficient communication, emojis foster a sense of camaraderie and unity among coworkers. This was demonstrated during the initial stages of the pandemic when Slack employees used the ❤️ emoji to express solidarity and emotional support.”

CEFR level