Emoji Pragmatics (2025)

Emoji is everywhere-on messaging apps, social networking sites, and even in offline media like billboards, films, and printed ads. While there is a substantial existing bibliography on emojis, it often fails to address their functions and interpretations in purely pragmatic terms, specifically focusing on their impact on inferential strategies for both the emojis themselves and accompanying texts. Existing books on this topic tend to focus on the semiotic aspects or visual impact of emojis, rather than their crucial role in interpreting the messaging text or social media post to which they are attached, as well as the way they communicate their own meanings when used in isolation (so-called naked emojis). This book is original in analysing the pragmatic roles that emojis play in online communication, the additional information they convey, and the role of context in their successful interpretation. The book also argues that, despite the apparent differences between words and images, emojis perform similar functions and are inferred in similar ways to words, with the aid of context. Additionally, the book dedicates several chapters to demographic variables (age, gender, ethnic origin, personality, etc.), the role of "interface affordances" in emoji use, and thematic areas where emojis are frequently found: humour, advertising/marketing, politics, law, and health.