Pragmatic functions of emoji in internet-based communication---a corpus-based study

Abstract Emojis have been indispensable and efficient tools in online interaction with the booming Internet and dramatically fast emergence of electronic communication channels. The present research is to study the pragmatic functions of emoji in internet-based communication within the revised framework of Linguagem em (Dis) curso (special issue on relevance theory) 14:511--529, 2014 8-function taxonomy. A total of 10 volunteers (20–40 years) were invited to collect a 3000-word latest corpus from their most active Wechat group respectively. Forty-six types of emoji in a corpus of 34,047 words were classified into 7 functions: attitude/emotion signal, attitude/emotion intensity enhancer, illocutionary force modifier, humor, irony, turn taking/giving, and backchannel device. We found emoji use was of high frequency, 1908 times in the corpus of 34,047 words, mainly as emotion signifier (attitude/emotion signal and attitude/emotion intensity enhancer, 50.8%) and interaction device (turn taking/giving, backchannel device and illocutionary force modifier, 47.8%). The top 3 most frequent emojis were (thump-up)(477 times) (rose) (222 times) and (traditional Chinese way of greeting and thanks) (108 times), which were used in an exaggerative and generalized way, slightly different from people’s preference of other countries. Additionally, positive emojis were used more often than negative ones. These findings suggested that emojis are of high frequency, functionality and efficiency in internet-based communication. Interestingly, online preference to emoji use does not perfectly mirror non-verbal signs in face-to-face communication; and in socio-emotional setting, people tend to frequently use positive emojis to create positive atmosphere to boost group rapport