Making Sense of Emoji

Lucy McDonald

doi:10.1017/S0031819124000135

Making Sense of Emoji

Lucy McDonald

Philosophy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

Many online messages now contain emoji – these small images have quickly become an important means of communicating. Yet they have not yet been taken seriously in philosophy of language. In this exploratory paper, I attempt to remedy this neglect by analysing the communicative functions of emoji. I argue that emoji have at least three communicative functions. Firstly, they can serve a replicative function, in that they can play the same role as words and punctuation, thereby replicating the function of existing written communicative devices. Secondly, they can serve a compensatory function, in the sense that they can be used to make up for features of face-to-face conversation which are lost in written online conversation. Thirdly, they can serve supplementary functions, in that we can perform new communicative acts with emoji which we could not previously perform either in written or face-to-face communication.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	413 - 435
Number of pages	23
Journal	PHILOSOPHY
Volume	99
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031819124000135
Publication status	Published - 11 Oct 2024

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10.1017/S0031819124000135

Making Sense of Emoji_McDONALD_2024_GREEN AAMAccepted author manuscript, 280 KBLicence: CC BY

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Making Sense of Emoji

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