Small Talk with Emojis: How Pictograms Contribute to the Organisation of Computer-Mediated Conversation

Abstract

Emojis have emerged as one of the most salient features of computer-mediated communication (CMC) in recent years. Under a pragmatic perspective the frequent use of emoji icons especially in private, informal instances of CMC (e.g. in whatsapp conversations) suggests that they make an important contribution to the organisation of understanding and social relations. In our article we present a framework for the pragmatic analysis of emoji occurences in CMC data and demonstrate the use of this framework on the example of the emoji practices found in a private whatsapp interaction.