Fluxus Editions

Abstract. This study explores the linguistic potential of emojis, focusing on their grammatical and semiotic qualities. While previous research has examined emojis as language accompaniments, this paper investigates their use in standalone sequences. In two experiments, participants transferred simple German sentences into emoji sequences, to enable analyses into how a) subject-predicate order and b) human versus animal agents affect emoji usage. The results indicate that although emojis can represent simple sentences while assuming basal grammatical features, a systematic use of grammatical concepts cannot be found. Instead, participants often rely on visual characteristics of the emojis rather than abstract linguistic meaning.

References References in BIB How to cite How to cite in BIB

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Weissman, Benjamin, Jan Engelen, Elise Baas, and Neil Cohn. 2023. “The Lexicon of Emoji? Conventionality Modulates Processing of Emoji.” Cognitive Science 47 (4): e13275. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.13275.

@ARTICLE{ai2017untangling,
   AUTHOR = {Wei Ai and Xuan Lu and Xuanzhe Liu and Ning Wang and Gang Huang and Qiaozhu Mei},
   TITLE = {Untangling Emoji Popularity Through Semantic Embeddings},
   JOURNAL = {Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media},
   YEAR = {2017},
   VOLUME = {11},
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   TITLE = {Online-{G}emeinschaften und {S}prachvariation. {S}oziolinguistische {P}erspektiven auf {S}prache im {I}nternet},
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@BOOK{chomsky1985aspects,
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   TITLE = {Aspects of the Theory of Syntax},
   PUBLISHER = {The M.I.T. Press},
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   YEAR = {1985},
   NOTE = {[original work published 1965]},
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   TITLE = {The grammar of emoji? Constraints on communicative pictorial sequencing},
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   BOOKTITLE = {Proceedings of the 40th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society},
   YEAR = {2018},
   PAGES = {1524--1529},
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@ARTICLE{duque2018heart,
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   TITLE = {I heart [emoji]: Understanding the effects of a new language of self-expression},
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   YEAR = {2018},
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@INPROCEEDINGS{grosz2021discourse,
   AUTHOR = {Patrick G. Grosz and Elsi Kaiser and Francesco Pierini},
   TITLE = {Discourse anaphoricity and first-person indexicality in emoji resolution},
   BOOKTITLE = {Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 25},
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@INPROCEEDINGS{jackendoff2014what,
   AUTHOR = {Ray Jackendoff and Eva Wittenberg},
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   BOOKTITLE = {Measuring linguistic complexity},
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@ARTICLE{koch1985sprache,
   AUTHOR = {Peter Koch and Wulf Oesterreicher},
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@ARTICLE{li2018pragmatic,
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   TITLE = {Pragmatic functions of emoji in internet-based communication---a corpus-based study},
   JOURNAL = {Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education},
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   TITLE = {Emoji Grammar as Beat Gestures},
   BOOKTITLE = {Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Emoji Understanding and Applications in Social Media (Emoji 2018)},
   YEAR = {2018},
}

@INPROCEEDINGS{pappert2017kommunikative,
   AUTHOR = {Steffen Pappert},
   EDITOR = {Michael Beißwenger},
   TITLE = {Zu kommunikativen {F}unktionen von {E}mojis in der {W}hatsApp-{K}ommunikation},
   BOOKTITLE = {Empirische Erforschung internetbasierter Kommunikation},
   PUBLISHER = {De Gruyter},
   ADDRESS = {Berlin, Boston},
   YEAR = {2017},
   PAGES = {175--211},
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@ARTICLE{pavalanathan2016more,
   AUTHOR = {Umashanthi Pavalanathan and Jacob Eisenstein},
   TITLE = {More emojis, less :) The competition for paralinguistic function in microblog writing},
   JOURNAL = {First Monday},
   YEAR = {2016},
   VOLUME = {21},
   NUMBER = {11},
}

@BOOK{saussure2011grundfragen,
   AUTHOR = {Ferdinand de Saussure},
   EDITOR = {Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye},
   TITLE = {Grundfragen der allgemeinen Sprachwissenschaft},
   BOOKTITLE = {Sprachwissenschaft},
   PUBLISHER = {De Gruyter},
   ADDRESS = {Berlin, Boston},
   YEAR = {2011},
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   NOTE = {[Original work published 1916]},
}

@ARTICLE{scheffler2022processing,
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   TITLE = {The processing of emoji-word substitutions: a self-paced-reading study},
   JOURNAL = {Computers in Human Behavior},
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   VOLUME = {127},
   PAGES = {107076},
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@INPROCEEDINGS{siebenhaar2018,
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   EDITOR = {Ziegler, Arne},
   TITLE = {Funktionen von {Emojis} und {Altersabhängigkeit} ihres {Gebrauchs} in der {Whatsapp}-{Kommunikation}},
   BOOKTITLE = {Jugendsprachen/\hskip0pt{Youth} {Languages}: {Aktuelle} {Perspektiven} internationaler {F}orschung/\hskip0pt{Current} {Perspectives} of {International} {Research}},
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   URL = {https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110472226-034},
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@ARTICLE{weissman2023,
   AUTHOR = {Weissman, Benjamin and Engelen, Jan and Baas, Elise and Cohn, Neil},
   TITLE = {The lexicon of {Emoji}? {Conventionality} modulates processing of emoji},
   JOURNAL = {Cognitive Science},
   YEAR = {2023},
   VOLUME = {47},
   NUMBER = {4},
   PAGES = {e13275},
}

Dennis Reisloh; Tatjana Scheffler (2024), “On the linguistic status of emojis,” in Proceedings of Grapholinguistics in the 21st Century, 2024 (Yannis Haralambous, Ed.), Grapholinguistics and Its Applications, Vol. 11, Brest: Fluxus Editions, 65–93.


@INPROCEEDINGS{gla11-reis,
   AUTHOR = {Dennis Reisloh and Tatjana Scheffler},
   EDITOR = {Haralambous, Yannis},
   TITLE = {{On the linguistic status of emojis}},
   BOOKTITLE = {{Proceedings of Grapholinguistics in the 21st Century, 2024}},
   SERIES = {{Grapholinguistics and Its Applications}},
   VOLUME = {11},
   PUBLISHER = {Fluxus Editions},
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   YEAR = {2024},
   PAGES = {65--93},
   DOI = {https://doi.org/10.36824/2024-graf-reis},
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