2024-03-29T14:55:20Zhttps://repositori.uji.es/oai/requestoai:repositori.uji.es:10234/1822472023-06-05T10:12:45Zcom_10234_8016com_10234_9col_10234_8623
00925njm 22002777a 4500
dc
Sampietro, Agnese
author
2019-04-01
Emoji are a set of pictographs available on several electronic platforms and applications, which are gradually replacing emoticons (sequences of punctuation marks representing facial expressions). Over the last decade, researchers have proposed that emoticons not only convey emotional content in computer-mediated communication, but they may also perform pragmatic functions, such as signaling the illocutionary force of the utterance (Dresner and Herring, 2010), mitigating threatening formulations (Wilson, 1993), or strengthening expressive speech acts (Skovholt et al., 2014). Despite their growing popularity, little pragmatic research to date specifically addresses emoji. The present paper bridges this gap by exploring the functions of emoji in a corpus of WhatsApp chats written in Spanish. Drawing on Spencer-Oatey's (2000, 2005) rapport management framework, the analysis shows that emoji are used across different domains in the corpus: they not only upgrade or downgrade different speech acts (illocutionary domain), as pointed out by previous research, but they also contribute to achieving a successful interaction by signaling closing sections or by helping to negotiate openings (discourse domain), as well as serving as a way to frame playful interactions (stylistic domain). This study also shows that some practices related to the use of emoji may be influenced by Spanish culture.
SAMPIETRO, Agnese. Emoji and rapport management in Spanish WhatsApp chats. Journal of Pragmatics, 2019, 143: 109-120.
http://hdl.handle.net/10234/182247
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2019.02.009
emoji
computer-mediated communication
WhatsApp
rapport management
politeness
Spanish
Emoji and rapport management in Spanish WhatsApp chats