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Article published In:
Internet Pragmatics
Vol. 2:2 (2019) ► pp.206–232

A study of phatic emoji use in WhatsApp communication

| Universidad de Sevilla
Mobile messaging is considered as a prominent site for phatic communication, where interpersonal connection is often foregrounded over information transaction. Though frequently overlooked, a large amount of this interpersonal work is done nonverbally through regular and meaningful emoji use. This exploratory study deals with emoji use within Laver’s (1975) phatic token framework, showing that different relationship structures (e.g., status-differential vs. solidary) correspond to distinct phatic token norms. The article analyzes phatic emoji use in a small-scale corpus of WhatsApp interactions between (a) a teacher and her L2-English students and (b) a teacher and her friends/family. Qualitative and quantitative analyses reveal patterns which widely corroborate Laver’s account of socially marked and unmarked token options: the teacher, the students, and the friends/family members tend towards addressee-specific use of neutral, other-oriented, and self-oriented phatic emojis.
Keywords: electronically-mediated communication, emojis, phatic communion, phatic tokens, pragmatics, WhatsApp
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Review of relevant research
    • 2.1Phatic communion
    • 2.2Phatic tokens
    • 2.3Conceptualizing emojis
  • 3.The study
    • 3.1Research questions
    • 3.2Data collection
  • 4.Analysis and findings
    • 4.1Qualitative analysis
      • 4.1.1Neutral tokens
      • 4.1.2Other-oriented personal tokens
      • 4.1.3Self-oriented personal tokens
      • 4.1.4Ambiguous tokens
    • 4.2Quantitative analysis
  • 5.Discussion of findings
    • 5.1Findings summary
    • 5.2Final remarks
  • References
Published online: 7 June 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ip.00029.aul
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