Filozofická fakulta Univerzity Palackého SUBSTITUTIVE EMOJIS (Diplomová práce) 2019 Michelle Martinek Filozofická fakulta Univerzity Palackého Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky SUBSTITUTIVE EMOJIS (Diplomová práce) Autor: Michelle Martinek Studijní obor: Anglická filologie Vedoucí práce: Mgr. Ondřej Molnár, Ph.D. Počet stran: 80 Počet znaků: 122,743 Olomouc 2019 Prohlášení Prohlašuji, že jsem diplomovou práci vypracovala samostatně a použila jen uvedenou literaturu a zdroje. V Olomouci dne…………………… Podpis………………………… Poděkování Děkuji Mgr. Ondřeji Molnárovi, Ph.D. za odborné vedení při tvorbě diplomové práce. Abstract This aim of this thesis is to investigate the possibility of emojis substituting language. Marcel Danesi outlines two functions of emojis in his book The Semiotics of Emoji: adjunctive and substitutive. Adjunctive emojis, which only complement the text, are the topic of a few publications and studies. However, when it comes to substitutive emojis, which replace words in text, there is incredibly little literature and no studies researching them in practice. The thesis begins with briefly reviewing the history of emojis and existing literature on emojis to identify a gap in knowledge. After this, other similar visual forms of script are discussed to determine the potential benefits and limitations of substitutive emojis. Following this is the practical part of the thesis, which is an analysis of over 900 examples of substitutive emojis from Instagram to better understand how they are used with text and why. Key words Emoji, substitution, emoticons, computer-mediated communication, multimodality Anotace Záměr diplomové práce je zkoumat emoji jako náhradu textu. V knize The Semiotics of Emoji Marcel Danesi upřesňuje dva způsoby návaznosti emoji na text. První způsob doplňuje, co je už vyjádřeno textem (anglicky adjunctive emojis). Na toto téma je k dispozici několik studií. Naopak studie nejsou žádné u druhého způsobu, kdy emoji text nahrazuje (anglicky substitutive emojis). Diplomová práce začíná přehledem historie emoji a existující literatury o nich. Jejím cílem je najít, analyzovat a doplnit chybějící informace o emoji, které nahrazují text. Poté jsou probírány další podobné grafické znaky vizuální komunikace, aby se zjistily možné výhody a omezení těchto emoji. Praktická část analyzuje více než 900 příkladů zmíněných emoji z Instagramu a umožňuje nám lépe rozumět, jak jsou používané a proč. Klíčová slova Emoji, náhrada, emotikony, počítačem zprostředkovaná komunikace, multimodalita Contents 1 Introduction ............................................................................................. 1 2 Defining Emojis ....................................................................................... 3 2.1 Development of the Emoji ................................................................ 4 2.2 Why Use Emojis? ............................................................................. 6 3 Review of Existing Literature ................................................................. 8 3.1 Defining Adjunctive and Substitutive ............................................... 8 3.2 Emoticons ......................................................................................... 9 3.3 Emojis ............................................................................................. 11 3.4 Identifying the Gaps in Knowledge ................................................ 14 4 Images Substituting Text ....................................................................... 15 4.1 Pictographs ...................................................................................... 15 4.2 Rebus .............................................................................................. 17 4.3 Emoji-Only Communication ........................................................... 18 4.4 Mixed Textuality: A Multimodal Approach ................................... 23 4.5 The Plausibility of Substitutive Emojis .......................................... 24 4.6 Hypotheses to Test .......................................................................... 25 5 Substitutive Emojis on Instagram .......................................................... 27 5.1 Methodology ................................................................................... 27 5.2 Results ............................................................................................. 29 6 Analysis ................................................................................................. 34 6.1 Parts of Speech ................................................................................ 34 6.1.1 Nouns ....................................................................................... 35 6.1.2 Verbs ........................................................................................ 39 6.1.3 Adjectives ................................................................................ 42 6.1.4 Adverbs .................................................................................... 46 6.1.5 Other Parts of Speech .............................................................. 46 6.1.6 In Conclusion of Parts of Speech ............................................ 48 6.2 Emoji Categories ............................................................................. 49 6.2.1 Face .......................................................................................... 49 6.2.2 Food & Drink .......................................................................... 51 6.2.3 Objects ..................................................................................... 51 6.2.4 People & Body ........................................................................ 52 6.2.5 Emotion ................................................................................... 53 6.2.6 Symbols ................................................................................... 54 6.2.7 In Conclusion of Emoji Categories ......................................... 54 6.3 Miscellaneous Observations ........................................................... 55 6.3.1 Motivation for Emoji Substitution ........................................... 56 6.3.2 Message Composition ............................................................. 58 6.3.3 Selected Examples of Unique Emoji Substitutions ................. 60 7 Conclusion ............................................................................................. 62 8 Data Tables ............................................................................................ 64 9 Examples ............................................................................................... 67 10 Resumé .................................................................................................. 79 11 References ............................................................................................. 76 1 Introduction Over the past 30 years technology has significantly changed how we communicate. Computer-mediated communication has connected people from across the globe and made long-distance interaction nearly instantaneous. At first the communication was simple and only one mode of communication was involved, like text in SMS or instant messaging. Over time users were given the ability to add other forms of expression to their messages. For example, users could use text and images together to convey ideas. Adding these other forms of expression made the communication multimodal. There is one form of modality that was not standardized in online communication until more recently: emojis. Emojis are small colorful images that can be added to text messages, like a smiley face ( ). In 2011 emojis exploded in popularity thanks to updated software on mobile phones which made them more accessible to users. Despite the popularity of emojis, they are a relatively new phenomenon and not much is known about them from a linguistic standpoint. There is one prominent publication from Marcel Danesi that tried to fill in this knowledge, called The Semiotics of Emoji. In this book he mentions that there are two ways of using emojis with text. The first is adjunctively to text and the other as a substitute of text. Adjunctive emojis are used to complement information that is already given through text. They do not contribute any denotative meaning to a message. There are numerous studies on adjunctive emojis, especially focused on their ability to act as illocutionary force indicators, guiding the reader’s interpretation of a message. Researchers found that they act like emotional punctuation and resemble paralinguistic features of language. Substitutive emojis, on the other hand, replace text. While there are several studies focused on the adjunctive use of emojis, there are no publications nor available data focused on substitutive emojis. It is generally acknowledged that emojis can be used to substitute words, but there is no information discussing how they replace language. This is the gap in knowledge that this thesis primarily concerns itself with. The goal of this thesis is to collect data to fill in knowledge of substitutive emojis and determine how these emojis are used in practice. After reviewing phenomena similar to substitutive emojis, some possible benefits and limitations of using substitutive emojis are determined. Then a prediction is made about which parts of speech are most suitable for substitution. In addition to researching what parts of language are replaced, which emojis are used for substitution