A Pragmatic Investigation of Emoticon Use in Nonnative /Native Speaker Text Chat

Abstract

Using data from college classroom text chats, this study takes a pragmatic, micro-analytic approach to describe how nonnative and native speaker participants use emoticons such as smileys, winkies, and frownies and what emoticons contribute to the verbal message. The pragmatic investigation of emoticons helps clarify their role within a larger conceptual framework of emotive and relational meaning. Moreover, by documenting the multifunctionality of smileys, the descriptive analysis shows that form-meaning pairings (e.g. “:)” means “happy”) cannot be taken for granted. Rather, emoticons are highly context-sensitive and can display affect or serve as contextual cues to signal illocutionary force and/or humor.