Written for a pop-science audience, but grounded in semiotic theory, this book provides an overview of the world's fastest growing form of communication—emoji. From its creation in 1998 by a Japanese telecommunications worker, Danesi examines the form and functions of this new ‘visual language’, tracing the development of emoji to its current status as a ubiquitous symbol of modern popular culture.
Composed of ten thematic chapters in which each considers different aspects of emoji use, Danesi provides a thorough and comprehensive overview of emoji, whilst introducing the lay reader to theories grounded in semiotic and linguistic theory. Intended to serve as an introductory chapter to the written language of emoji, chapter 1 is a more general history of writing systems. Against this backdrop, Danesi discusses the origins of emoji, comparing and contrasting this visual communication form with more typical written-language forms, such as the alphabetic writing system. The next two chapters (chapters 2 and 3) build upon the introduction, providing the necessary background for the main theoretical points established in later chapters. Chapter 2 discusses the basic uses of emoji, supported by evidence from a corpus of 322 texts and online messages collected by the author. In doing so, Danesi provides an overview of the functions that emoji serve and discusses how cultural differences may influence the perception of meaning. This point is elaborated in chapter 3, which discusses how users interpret and comprehend the intended meaning of emoji in a given context, whilst situating the use of emoji within a framework of rhetorical language.
Chapters 4–7 focus on the linguistic rules that constrain and govern the distribution of emoji. In chapter 4, this theme is explored in terms of the semantics of emoji, wherein it is argued that the main function of emoji is to increase the positivity of a message—a theory couched within Erving Goffman's concept of ‘framing’. Chapter 5 examines the unwritten rules of emoji grammar, discussing the data in terms of how forms are conceptually connected. Chapter 6 develops Danesi's main theoretical point—that emoji increase the positivity of a message—by examining the pragmatic functions of emoji in terms of Roman Jakobson's six speech functions. In Chapter 7, Danesi examines variation, particularly cross-cultural variation, in emoji usage by drawing on evidence from his corpus, examining how emoji may be subject to historical and cultural associations of meaning, which may explain the relative difference in frequency of emoji usage across speakers.
In chapters 8–10, Danesi presents a discussion of the broader context in which emoji has emerged. Chapter 8 attempts to unravel why emoji has become such a prevalent form of communication. This discussion is elaborated in chapters 9 and 10, in which the author examines emoji in terms of the affordances of the internet and the ‘global village’, where emoji is viewed as both a form of individualism and tribalism. Chapter 9 poses the question as to whether emoji reflects a movement towards a universal language. Finally, the book concludes as a prelude to the future: chapter 10 asks whether emoji is transient, reflective of current trends, or whether it is reflective of a new, codified, visual language.
